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STATE OF NEW YORK. 




prepared pursuant to a Concurrent irresolution of the legislature of 1878, 
and Chapter 391 of the 'j_.am of 1879. 



BY 




te §.p§i@^ 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



ALBANV: 

WEED, PARSONS & CO, PRINTERS 
187!), 



It 
v.. V, Vj^,. 



Tap.le of Conten^ts. 



INTHODUCTORY, 



PAGE. 
1-3 



PKOCEEDINGS OF N. Y. HISTORICAL SOCIETY, - - - - 5-23 
Address of Cuas. O'Conor on tue Adoption op the Constitution, 8 

PROCEEDINGS AT KINGSTON, 23-53 

Address of Judge T. R. Westbrook, - - - - - 28 

" Chauncey M. Depew, 39 

" Dr. C. D. F. Hoes, - - - - - 28 

' ' George H. Sharpe, . . - . . 40 

Letter of Horatio Seymour, 50 

" Judge Church, -..---• 53 

PROCEEDINGS AT ORISKANY, - - - - - 55-149 



Address of Horatio Seymour, 



66 



" William Dorsheimer, - • . - - 72 

" William J. Bacon, - - . - - 74 

'■ Ellis II. Roberts, 78 

" DouGL.\s Campbell, 98 

103 

104 

106 



" Philo White, -------- 

Poem by Dr. Helmer, - 

Address of Clarkson N. Potter. 

" Dr. Haven, -------- 108 

" Samuel Earl, - - ...--- 112 

M. M. Jones, - - - 133 

Poem by J. W. De Peyster, .--.--- 126 

Appendix to Oriskany, - - 128 

PROCEEDINGS AT BEMUS HEIGHTS, - - - l.JO-192 

Address of George G. Scott, 155 

" JIartin T. Tonvnsend, 157 

" WiLLi-ot Dorsheimer, ----- 161 

Poem by Robert Lowell, ...---- 163 

Address of John A. Stevens, - - .... 168 



iv Table of Contents. 



PAGE. 



PROCEEDINGS AT THE OLD FORT AT SCHOHARIE, - - 194-230 

Address op Grenville Trbmain, - 197 

Poem by Alfred B. Street, ..-.--- 207 

Address OF Dr. D. Knower, - - - - - - .- 209 

.'\rpENDix, --■ 218 

PROCEEDINGS AT SCHUYLER VILLE IN HONOR OF BURGOYNE'S 

SURRENDER - - - - - - - - - 332-3.56 

Address of Grakd Master Couch, . . - - - 249 

" Charles S. Lester, ------- 250 

" Horatio Seymour, 252 

" Geo. William Curtis, ------ 264 

Poem by Alfred B. Street, - - - - - - - 278 

Address of Lafayette S. Foster, ------ 320 

' ' George W. Scetoyler, ------ 332 

" William L. Stone, - 334 

" B. W. Throckmorton, ----- 335 

" H. L. Gladding, - 340 

" A. A. Yates, - 344 

Ode by J. Watts De Peyster, - 348 

Letters, etc., -- 351 

Appendix, -- 354 

PROCEEDINGS AT CHERRY VALLEY, - - - - - 359-383 

Memorial Ode, --- -- 360 

Address op Hor.\tio Seymour, ------ 361 

" Douglas Campbell, ------ 363 

SKETCH OF THE OLD CAPITOL, ------ 387-401 

SKETCH OF THE NEW CAPITOL, 405-418 

PROCEEDINGS IN COMMEMORATION OF THE OCCUPATION OF 

THE NEW CAPITOL, 421-449 

Address op William Dorsheimer, ------ 435 

" Thomas G. Alvord, 429 

■ ' Ekastus Brooks, ....--- 433 



List of Tllustratioj^ts. 



PAGE. 

■^ George Clinton, .----.-- Frontispiece. 

V Old Senate House at Kingston, ------- 25 

\/ Gen. Herkimer, ''^^ 

'^ Scene of Oriskany Battlefield at present day — East Ravine, 91 

V Scene of Oriskany Battlefield at present day — West Havine, 127 
\/ Old Fort at Schoharie, with Monument to D.wid Willia.ms, tM 
^ Philip Schuyler, ----------- 332 

4 The Scene of BrRooYNE's Surrender at present day, - - 301 

4 The Old Capitol, - 387 

^ Old Senate Chamber, ---------- 391 

VOld Assembly Chamber, 395 

V Governor's Room, - - - - - 398 

''Old Court of Appe-u-s Room, 401 

'' The New Capitol, - - - - - 403 

' Assembly Chamber, ----- 415 

^ Gr.^nd Corridor, ----- 430 

■y Grand Staircase, - - 438 



INTKODUCJTORY. 



Oil tlic Stli (if May, 1878, a CDiicnrrcnt resi)lutinn, iiitntduced by 
1 1 (111. James (r. (tkamjVM, of Orange, in tlio Iluuse, was passed by tlio 
Legislature, of wliicli the following is a copy: 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Relative to the Publication of Certain Historical Records. 

On motion of Mr. GRAn.\M : 

WiiERE.vs, The "Centennial" of the adoption of tlie first Constitution of 
tlie State of New York, at Kingston, Ulster county, was appropriatelj' recognized 
by tlie New York Historical Society, and afterward duly celebrated at Kingston ; 
and, 

Whereas, The Centennial of the battles of Fort Stauwi.x and Oriskany, and 
Beniis Heights, the laying of the corner-stone of the monument at the old Fort 
at Schoharie, to David Williams, one of the captors of Major Andre, as well as 
the battle of Saratoga, were all appropriately celebi'ated (on the grounds which 
have been made famous forever in our history) by military display, and the patri- 
otic addresses of distinguished orators and statesmen, and by the inspiring trib- 
utes of our poets; therefore, be it 

Besolved (if the Senate concur). That tlie Secretary of State cause to be pre- 
pared and published in appropriate manner and style, a full and correct record of 
the proceedings at all said " Centennial" celebrations, including therein the olK- 
cial action of the authorities by whom the same were conducted ; a statement of 
the military exercises and the organizations taking part therein, all historical 
sketches read, and all addresses and poems prepared and delivered at the sev- 
eral Centennial celebrations, and that five thousand copies of the same be pre- 
pared and publislied as aforesaid, ten copies thereof to be furnished to eacli mem- 
ber, and one copy to each offiitcr and reporter of the present Legislature, and one 
to each ofBcer of the State government; one thousand copies to be furnished to 
the State Library for exchange, and for distribution to other libraries in this 
State; and tlie remainder to bo used by the Secretary of State in supplying per- 
sons who made addresses at such celebrations, and the persons officially connected 
therewith, and to such other persons or institutions as he may deem proper; 
also to accompany this work with views of the Old and New Capitol of the State, 
outside and inside, as far as practicable, with appropriate historical sketches con- 
nected therewith; said work to be compiled and executed under the supervision 
of the Secretary of State, and to be let by him to the lowest responsible bidder; 
but tlie entire expense thereof shall not exceed the sum of six thousand doUare. 



2 iNTKOUUC'l'Om. 

Oil tlu' Otli iif January, 1S71>, tlio Secretary of State made tlu' fol- 
lowing report to the Legislature relative to his action in the matter of 
tlic ]iul>lic'ation (Assembly Doe. 17, session of 1S79) : 

REPORT 
Oi'' THE Skohetaky of Statk Relative to the Publicathin of Certain 

HlSTOlUCAL ReCOKUS. 

Opfick of the Secretauy of State, 
Albany, January M, 1879. 

Hon. Thomas G. Ai.vonri, Speaker of tJie AssemUy : 

Siu: I liave the Imiuir to submit herewith to tlic Li'yislaturc the following- 
report relative to the work done by me, iu pursuance of the directions of the 
accompanying concurrent resolution, passed May 8, 1878. 

(Here followed the resolution quoted above.) 

In obedience to the instructions conveyed by these resolutions, I have had col- 
lected the material necessary for the publication of the book, and it is now in my 
possession, ready to be placed at once iu the hands of the editor. The collection 
of the material involved no expense, but any further steps toward the editing and 
printing of the volume will require an appropriation, which the Legislature of 
last year, while adoi)ting the resolution aljove quoted, inadvertently failed to 
make. 

Allliough several propositions were made bj' responsible publishing houses to 
proceed with the printing and completion of the book without an appropriation, 
depending upon your honorable body at its present session to provide for tlie pay- 
ment of the same, the intent of the coustitutional provision against binding the 
credit of the State where no appropriation is made, appeared to be so plainly 
against such action, that I have deemed it my duty to withliold the publication 
until an apjiropriatiou is actually made. 

I would, therefore, suggest to the honorable, the Legislature, that au appropri- 
ation is necessary to carry out the purposes of the resolution, and that if an ade- 
quate one is made at an early day, the volume can be issued with little further loss 

of time. 

I have tlie honor to be, 

Your obedient servant, 

ALLEN C. BEACH, 
St:crett(ri/ of State. 

On May 28^ 1870, the following Law was passed: 

CHAPTER 391. 

An Ait AIakino an ArpnonuATioN for the Publication of Certain 
HlSTOlUCAL Records. 

Passkd May 38, IST'J; tliree-llttlis being present. 
The People of the State of AVvr York, represented in Senate and Asuendib/, do enact 
a* foUotcs : 

Section 1. The sum of six thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be 
necessary, is hereby ajjpropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise 



Introductory. 3 

uppropriatc'd, p;iy:ililc.' on llic wui-niiit of tlie C'oin])trollcr to tlie order of tlie Sec- 
retary of Sliite, for the use of the parties entitled to the same, for tlic prepara- 
tion and puhlication of eertaiu historical eenteunial records, pursuant to concur- 
rent resolution of the Senate and Assembly, passed May eight, cigliteen hundred 
and seventy-eight, and, also, for the publication, in the same volume, of the 
memorial addresses ordered by concurrent resolution of the Legislature, adopted 
January twenty-eight, eighteen hun<lred and seventy-nine, and delivered at the 
New Capitol on the evening of the twelfth of February, of the present year. 
§ 2. This act shall take ell'ecl immediately. 

Under these directions the present volume has been prepared. While 
aiming to secure the correct and official record of proceedings in each 
case, tlie Secretary has felt that the intention of the Kesoliition to per- 
petuate an account of these imi^ortant celebrations would be more cer- 
tainly obtained by the publication in connection with each event of 
short extracts from the ne\vs])aper reports of unofficial matters indicat- 
ing the spirit and ardor of the people on each occasion, and describ- 
ing for the future generations who may read the volume, the smaller 
and fro(picntly inoro interesting items of the celebrations. In this idea 
lie was strengthened by tlic following letter, which he received from 
Hon. Horatio Seymouk, to ^vll(llll he wishes hereby to acknowledge 
strong obligations for aid d\u\ advice rendered: 

Utica, N. T., June Zrth, 1879. 

My Dear Sir — It ia hard to say what you should strike out of the proceedings at these cele- 
brations. It maybe that what seems trivial now will he of the most interest iu the future. If 
we could have a full newspaper rei)urt after the fashion of to-day, of a public meeting held at 
the time of the Revolution, their banners, and their ways of doing tilings would be of more value 
and interest tlian tlieir formal speeches. Tilings wliicli seem to be trivial at the time in afteryears 
throw gi'eat light upon events. Your book will be found in some of the pubUc Ubraries a hundred 
years from now. 

It will be looked up then with great interest ; but the readers mil care less for the speeches than 
for the information it will give about the looks and actions of the people at the celebrations of 1877. 

The speech-inakei-s would say about the same thing hereafter that they have said heretofore 
about the battles of llie Revolution. But time will make great changes in the mannei*s, customs, 
and social aspects of our people. Things that seem commonplace now will be curious and inter- 
esting in the future. 

I am, yours truly, etc., 

HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

The Secretary desires also to acknowledge his obligations to lion. 
Ei.r.is II. Roberts, Clakkson N. Pon-ER, Charles O'Conok, John 
Austin Stevens, George William Curtis, Judge George G. Scorr, 
Hon. T). Knower, and others who largely aided him in a prompt and 
correct preparation of the volume by their personal efforts in sujjjjlying 
him with corrected and revised records. 

ALLEN C. BEACH, 

Secretai'y of State. 



SIxc llciu ^ovli llistovical J^oxictij, 



THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTIONS. 



Proceedings of The New York Historical 

Society. 



At a stated mcctino- of the New York Historical Society, held in its 
Hall on Tuesday evening, February G, 1877, the Executive Committee 
submitted the following report : 

Tlie Executive Committee takes occasion to remind the Society that on Friday, 
the 20th of April next, will occur the One Hundredth Anniversary of the adoption 
of the Constitution of the State of New York, and suggest the propriety of a recog- 
nition of the most important event in the annals of the State under the auspices 
of this Society, an institution specially created by its Legislature to preserve the 
history of tliis great jjolitical community. 

The Committee takes occasion furtlier to remind the Society of the later coming, 
Wednesday, the 17tli of October next, of the One Hundredth A.nniversary of tlie 
Battle of Saratoga, a victory in great measure due to the valor of the officers 
and troops of the State, and now recognized as tlie determining contest in tlic 
struggle for American Independence. 

The Committee respectfully recommend that each of these important events be 
celebrated by the Society . 

The following resolution was then adopted : 

Iti'mlecd, That the recommendations of the Executive Committoo be adopted 
and that the same be rcferrcil to the Committee with power. 

In accordance with this authority, Mr. Cn.\ELEs O'CoNouwas invited 
to deliver an address suitable to the occasion at a time convenient to 
himself. 

The evening of T\[ay Sth was selected when a special meeting of the 
Society was held at the Academy of J\Iusic. 

Tiie President, Frederic de Peystek, LL. D., called the meeting 
til order ;Hid s:iid ; 

Tlie New York Historical Society have invited their friends to unite wilh tliem 
in celebrating, tliis evening, the One Hundredtli Anniversary of tlie adoption of 



8 Centennial Celebrations. 

tlic Constitution of the State of New York. The Constitution of the State, as is 
well known, was adopted at Kingston-upon-Hudson, on tlie 20th of April, 1777; 
but the present commemoration has been delayed as a later day in the season 
was more desirable. The Society has been fortunate in obtaining from Mr. 
O'CoNOR his consent to deliver an address on this occasion. The subject he has 
selected is The Constitdtions. 

I have now the pleasure of presenting to you our distinguished member and 
friend, Mr. Cuarles O'Conor. 



ADDEESS BY CIIAELES O'CONOR. 

Ladies and GENTiiEMBN: 

We are asseiubled to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of our State's 
political Ijirtli as a free and independent sovereignty, and also to signalize with 
appropriate forms her entrance upon the second century of such her organized 
existence. As a part of the exercises deemed suitable to the occasion, the His- 
torical Society has directed a review in your presence of such circumstances con- 
nected with the frame and efiects of our written Constitutions as may seem most 
interesting. In performing this duty, it is not needful to recapitulate the trans- 
actions of tliat conflict with the mightiest power of our times in which the national 
life of this Republic originated. Charming as the recital might be made even 
now and in its thousandth repetition, there are pertinent subjects of a practical 
bearing upon our interests which may furnish more acceptable themes. 

The first Constitution whose establishment we are celebrating was formed 
amidst the clash of arms and at a trying period of our natal strife. The whole 
southern district of the State, including this its capital city, was possessed by the 
enemy, and two invasions of our territory from other points were impending. 
They were ultimately defeated, but that issue could not have been confidently 
predicted. Tlio town which harbored the framers of the Constitution at its adop- 
tion was then being approached by hostile forces. It soon fell into their hands 
and was reduced to ashes; yet such were the intelligence, calm temper, and pa- 
triotic firmness of the illustrious men who prepared the instrument that, taking 
into view the existing measure of attainment in political science, it may defy just 
criticism. Opinion is divided on the question wliether in the progress of that 
cnliglitenment to whicli it afforded a basis, it has been, as a whole, improved 
upon. Treating as comparatively of slight moment its minute arrangements 
for administrative purposes, such as the adjustment of inferior offices and tri- 
bunals, we will chiefly consider those parts of the instrument wliich may justly 
be called our organic law — tliat is to say, the great leading characteristic fea- 
tures winch were designed to distinguish it from preceding plans of government. 
And it may be instructive to compare it with the alterations which liave since 
been made. The aim will be to exhibit cleai'ly those fundamental principles 
which it is the proper office of a written Constitution to preserve. For all the 
purposes of benign and useful government as contemplated in our American sys- 
tem, these principles are few, simple and easily understood. If in their native 
purity we can bring them distinctly before the public mind, and kecji them in 
view, their continued acceptance will be insured. 



The New Yokk Historical Society. 9 

Wlien the tliiitcen colonies rose in arms against their transatlantic ruler, their 
sentiments were accordant in essentials. Each was inhabited by a monogamous 
race. So completely inwrought with their morality was the pure marital relation, 
as exhibited by our first parents, that no permanent guarantee for its preservation 
was ever thought necessary. Hence, perhaps, the unwise tolerance of Jlormon 
polygamy in recent times and an injudicious facility of divorce in some of the 
States. In parts of the country the Indian and the African were overlooked as 
distinct races; but, with these silent and merely implied exceptions, an absolute 
equality of all men was unequivocally and universally asserted. Tliese two ideas 
constituted the basis of our politics and of our civilization; they are the sources 
of all the good hitherto developed in our social state. From them we must per- 
mit no departure. 

In thus claiming that the Fathers were perfectly unanimous on the principle 
of equality, it is not forgotten that age, sex, residence and property or the sus- 
tainment of public burdens were generally, if not invariably, demanded as pre- 
requisites to exercising what ij^ somewhat inaptly termed the franchise of voting. 
. The criticism is not sound which would denounce any of these requisitions as 
encroachments upon personal rights. It is an error quite inconsistent with the 
theory of government, as inaugurated on our separation from the parent State, to 
regard the act of voting for public officers as a private right or personal privilege. 
It is simply the performance of a duty in which the public only has an interest. 
The vote is no more a private right than the payment of a just tax or the act of 
submitting to enrollment as a soldier and marching to confront an assailing foe. 
These are public duties, nut private rights. Every generous and patriotic heart, 
will, indeed, enjoy their performance and exult in enduring all tlie hardships im- 
posed by it; but the notion of a resulting personal and individual benefit no 
more applies to the employment of time and labor in the political duty of cast- 
ing a vote than to the act of pouring out life's current on the field in defense of 
our country. It follows that requiring specified qualifications in the voter is 
merely the enactment of exemptions from the performance of a public service. 
Rightly undenstood, these exemptions would be regarded as relief acts in favor 
of those who, in the judgment of the State, were unable to sustain the liurden, 
and, therefore, could not be justly charged with it. It is from our failure to 
realize this manifest truth that we tolerate the pernicious trade of politics in its 
lowest forms and fail to hold in deep dislike the profession of the party-organizer 
or the pursuits of the habitual office-seeker. 

Let us, in some detail, take a view of our first Constitution. 

It ordained that the people were the only source of political power, and con- 
secrated in perpetuity all those common rights of exemption in projierty and person 
from arbitrary power which the colonists had claimed for British subjects, 
inchiding.the privilege of trial by jury. The first might fairly be pronounced 
a new political institute; the rest were merely guaranties of rights which, tho.ugh 
imperiled by abuses, were deemed ancient and already sacred. One other new 
doctrine was promulgated. It was declared that " the free exercise and enjoy- 
ment of religious profession and worship without discrimination should forever 
thereafter be allowed within this State to all mankind." Religious liberty was 
thus secured by language of the amplest liberality and comprehensiveness. This 
cannot be said of auy other State Constitution adopted during the Revolutionary 
conflict, unless it be that of Virginia. Perhaps she may claim equality with 
New York in regard for religious liberty. For their early devotion to its estab- 
2 



10 Centennial Celebrations. 

lishinoiit. our .Jol\n .)ay ami Virginia's George JMasnn became entitled to statues in 
the national iiantheon. Except in a single instance, ingenuity never subsequently 
discovered in this State a means of deducing any civil consequence from theo- 
logical opinion. A small class of unbelievers were excluded from bearing testi- 
mony in courts of justice until the anomaly was obviated by the Constitution of 
1846. 

Undoubtedly the best and freest Constitution for its own creators that any 
people bad ever enjoyed before 1776 was that of England. The era of active, 
practical progress in disseminating among men a knowledge of tlieir political 
rights maybe said to liave commenced aliout the eighteenth century. Writers of 
great power then do\-oted their lives to this object ; and as it is far easier to adopt 
a good existing model and commend it to acceptance than to produce and win 
approval for an entirely new and original conception, the English system became 
the beau ideal of those political reformers. Their views in the main were adopted 
))y the most enlightened of the American colonists. Many were induced by the 
vigor of their own reilectious to reject all monarchical and aristocratical elements, 
while the violence which attended the separation, the absence of great wealth 
among our gentry and certain concurring circumstances, forced others to relin- 
quish personal predilections and to acquiesce in that judgment. Thus, by unani- 
mous consent, republican equality became the basis of tbe coming empire. 8till 
there remained deeply seated in the American heart an almost boundless admir.a- 
tion of all English institutions that were either compatible with perfect equality 
and religious freedom, or that it seemed possible to mold into harmony with them. 
Consequently, in the mere working arrangements for the transaction of pulilic 
affairs, the English model was followed. In our State the imitation was extremely 
close. A somewhat permanent executive chief was installed, and the notion of 
parliamentary government was acted upon and developed in two sejiarate cham- 
bers. Local county courts and a probute judiciary were instituted, as well as a 
superintending common-law tribunal called the Supreme Court, side by side with 
a chancery to mitigate the rigor of its forms and supply its doflciencies. All 
these were patterned after the English judicial system ; nor was its crowning fea- 
ture overlooked. The only State organism that bore an}' shadow of resemblance 
to the English House of Peers was the Senate ; and there, in the closest imitation 
of our parent State, the Constitution enthroned the supreme judicial power with 
final appellate jurisiliction in law and equity. Grace and majesty shone forth in 
the copy as in the original. This first New York judiciary administered public 
justice and protected private rights, during the whole period of its existence, in a 
niaMHoi- which satisfied our people and won applause from all disinterested 
observers. Of its judges and the pleaders before it, many have left names that 
will not die while learning and virtue arc reverenced. Kent was the glory of its 
bench; II.vmii.ton of its bar. To name others without giving too lengthened a 
list might seem invidious. 

It was in respect only to provisions merely modal, and not involving any prin- 
ciple, that the first Constitution was subjected to any considerable alteration 
prior to the year 1846. It may, however, be interesting to note some of the 
changes which occurred in the interim. In 1801 the representation in Senate and 
Assembly was modified. The crimes of malicious homicide and treason were orig- 
inally excepted from the power of pardon conferred upon the Governor; but, in 
1833, the former offense was brought within this prerogative. The first Consti- 
tution created a council for making appointments to ofiice and another for the 



* The New York Historical Sociei'y 11 

revision of lof;islativc acts witli a qualified veto. In 1833 both o. these counoils 
wcrv aliolislu'il. Tiie veto power was tlien conferred >ipon (he Governor alone, 
and the power of appointment was mainly vested in that otHcer and the Senate. 
Various other alterations of like inferior grade were made in tliat year. The 
Supreme Court Judges were reduced in niunbcr, and local assistant judges were 
created subordinate to that court and to the Court of Chancery. Several new 
])rovisions were then introduced as to the appointment and election of inferior 
officers. And henre we pass to an important ei)oeh. 

A new Constitution, adopted during the previous autumn, went into effect in 
1847. With alterations scarcely more than formal it is still in force. It wrought 
very material changes in the structure of our State Government, and by conse- 
quence in its methods. It abolished the pre-e.xisting court of last resort as well 
as the Supreme Court of common-law jurisdiction and the Court of Chancery, 
substituting for the first a Court of Appeals with eight judges, since reduced to 
seven. The powers and jurisdiction of the other two high tribunals were vested 
in eight essentially local courts. Each Senator and Assemblyman was directed 
to be chosen in a separate, or, as it was called, a single district, the term of the 
former being reduced to two yeai-s, or one-half of the duration previously estab- 
lished. 

At first only the Governor, the Legislature, and a few local administrative offi- 
cers, were elected by the people. That principle had been gradually ami in a 
slight measure extended to other members of the latter class; but now the whole 
judiciary and nearly all officers of whatever grade were made elective. The 
period of these striking changes would seem a fit place to notice the various alter- 
ations whicli have been made in the qualifications of voters. Under the first 
Constitution the Governor and Senate were elected by those possessing freeholds 
of £100 in value over and above incumbrances. None could vote for members of 
Assembly except the freemen of cities or residents possessing a freehold in the 
comity of £20 in value, or renting a tenement of the annual value of 40 shil- 
lings, and who had been rated and paid a tax. The new Constitution of 1833 
lowered the standard and required only that the elector should have borne some 
public burden; but the slightest sufficed. In 1826 even this pre-requisite was 
abolished. Having reached maturity, was thenceforth and now is the only quali- 
fication, except residence, demanded of those exercising the sovereign power. A 
residence of some permanency had always been required ; but now, in 184fi, when 
numerous new duties making grave demands upon intelligence were imposed 
upon the citizen, there being no other restraint that could be loosened by the 
spirit of change, the six mouths' residence jircscribed by existing law was 
reduced to four. Perhaps there was some compensation for this in the new 
requisites of a thirty days' resilience within the election district, and that the 
robe of acquired citizenship should be ten days old. The beneficial performance 
of the electoral duty might liave been better secured. Requiring a continual 
registered residence within the district for one full year next preceding the vote, 
would exclude all tramps and other unsettled persons. This would lessen the 
mercenary bands employed by faction. The secret ballot is an evil practice; it 
sliould have been long since abolished. All voting should be riva toee ; and 
besides announcing his choice, the voter should be required to write and sub- 
scribe his ticket with his own hand in the presence of the election judges, and 
to deposit it with them as authentic evidence of his act. Under such regulations 
public officers might be selected by the intelligent and witli intelligence; the 



12 Centennial Celebeations. 

falsehood an<l fraud which now sn often characterize the reported results of pop- 
ular elections would be rendered difficult if not absolutely impossible. 

Returning- to tlie new Constitution of 184G, it is proper to observe that the 
character of the State government was materially affected by what was called the 
single district system. Theretofore, no communities formed by social aggrega- 
tion liad ever been prevented from acting together in the selection of representa- 
tives. The ancient civil division iuto counties had been fully maintained. Eacli 
of these had always acted as a unit in clioosing Assemblymen; and, witliout 
division, they had voted for Senators either alone or in conjunction with other 
counties. Now the cities and villages were split into geograpliical fragments pre- 
scribed by a rigorous necessity which tlie Constitution itself created. The vary- 
ing census and the ratio of representation controlled in fixing the boundary lines 
of tlie single districts. Tliis change was destructive of neighborly consultation 
and comparison of views among the electors. Together with the election of 
nearly all officers, superior or subordinate, by direct popular vote, it constituted 
the essentially novel element of the plan delineated in 1846. Though condemned 
by a vast non-partisan majority in this city and in some of the neighboring coun- 
ties, that plan was adopted and still reigns supreme. 

As we have seen, the first organic law remained in force without essential 
alterations for seventy years ; that now in force has, in like manner, subsisted for 
thirty years, and the two periods complete the political century which to-night we 
look back upon as a thing of the past. The contrast between these periods is im- 
pressive. During the first, our progress was in every moral, political and social 
aspect satisfactory. It ■w'itnessed two great foreign wars. Our State, as a border 
land, sustained the brunt of both with much individual suffering, but with Iionor 
at all times and eventual safety. Its costly public works were the canals which, 
supjjlementing our State's natural advantages as a highway of commerce, united 
the vast inland seas of our continent with the exterior ocean. The outlay for 
those works fell short of the estimates, and scarcelj' surpassed one year's recent 
expenditure on the mere internal finish and repair of a single county court-house. 
Let this suffice for a contrast between these two periods in relative frugality of 
administration. In noue of its branches will the action of the Government during 
the first compare unfavorablj' with the second. Under J.w's organic law, as some 
have justly termed it, early legislation gave a death-blow to aristocratic establish- 
ments, and completed the work of republican equality by abolishing the unnatural 
law of primogeniture and its hand-maiden, entail. In despite of some state-craft, 
rational principles enabled the original court of last resort to repudiate the cor- 
nipting doctrine that corporate forms in trade and banking were, in princijile, 
public frauchises incapable of being enjoyed excejit through special privileges 
doled out to favorites. At the close of the seventy years which may be denomi- 
nated our first constitutional period, no serious debt burdened our people, and the 
little that existed was the price of solid, visible public improvements, necessary 
to our growth and highly remunerative. Our condition at the close of the second 
or thirty-year period is not eipially flattering to pride or hope. AVhat are its most 
impressive features? Public debt and consequent taxation to meet the interest 
confront us in every direction. Federal debt. State debt, city debt, county, town, 
and village debt abound; and the tendency to create additional debt for Govern- 
ment enterprises set on foot by the traders in politics is visible all around us. One 
circumstance connected with this great evil has failed to attract due attention. 
So much (if our publii- debt is held nliniad, that doubtless we jiay to Europe for 



The New York Historical Society. 13 

iiiterost on it in every j-car at least $100,000,000. Is it singular that under such a 
drain upon us trade languishes? The habits of our officials generated during 
their hey-day, while this debt was being created, and the extravagance couse- 
t]uently induced among themselves, their followers, and supporters arc overwhelm- 
ing with burdens all the pursuits of life. 

The future historian, contrasting the two jieriods adverted to, may ask why were 
so many changes made in the fundamental law ? Reason dictates that it should 
be fi.xed, certain, and essentially unalterable. No other cause can be a,ssigned 
than party conflicts for the control and disposition of official patronage. And in 
connection with this view of cause and eSect it should not seem strange that the 
Constitution of 184G, which gave life, vigor and permanency to the trade of poli- 
tics, with all its attendant malpractice, was exceedingly acceptable to the mana- 
gers of both the then existing political parties. These parties have controlled its 
macliineiy and alternately ruled over us during the tliirty years since its adoption 
without any clearly discernible dllTerence in their methods. And at this day, 
not only in the State of New York, but throughout the whole country, they may 
fairly be pronounced identical in their avowed principles and policy. Each strives 
to outvie its antagonist in professions of attachment to precisely the same ideas 
and principles. They do not differ even in name, for their titular designations 
are perfect synonyms. Now, as we are commencing our second century, it may 
be the part of wisdom to j)ause in oiu- coiu'sc, and take an observation not only of 
the two periods that have been to some extent compared, but also to glance at the 
possibilities of our future. If our progress has been in anj' respect politically or 
morally downward, it may not be amiss to view carefully the cii'cumstances of the 
present, and inquii-e whether any methods which are in operation among us tend 
to cvW, and are susceptible of repression or improvement. It will not be needful 
to compare the alternate rulers of our country — that is to say, the political parties. 
Judging either by its own professions, we will be forced to flunk well of it, 
because it wiU be found in the most commendable attitude mortals can occupy. 
Each sits on the stool of reiientance, admitting its errors in the past and promis- 
ing amendment. Its cry is reform. Let us assume, then, as a common concession 
by all politicians, that rcfonn is needful, and that its triumph can alone secure our 
coimtry's return to prosperity. Starting with this assumption, let us inquire what 
are the features of our civil institutions which render reform needful. 

We have seen that the Fathers adopted for their guide as to principles, Euro- 
pean sages the most enlightened in political philosophy, and chose for their model 
in merely structural respects the best system of government on a large scale the 
world had ever known ; yet mischiefs of grave import have certainly been devel- 
oped in the working of their jilans. It becomes us to ascertain the source of those 
mischiefs, and, if jjossible, to obviate the causes. Research vnll lead to the con- 
clusion that the theories espoused were correct, but that they were not practically 
apjilicd to our new system. Instead of adopting implicitly English forms, we 
should extract from them so much of their spirit as is appropriate to our situation. 
Rajjliael and Michael Angelo jjcrused the remains of primeval art only for the 
guidance of their own inspiration into practical channels. They were not mere 
copyists. So the framers of American institutions should drink charily at the 
fountains of European experience. They should accept no seeming analogies 
without first adajiting them by needful variations to our more beneficent and 
lofty career. 



14 Centennial Celebrations. 

Let us first give attention to tlie theories espoused by the Fathers. Political 
philosojihy early propounclecl a canon, the soundness of which no American will 
now (U'ny. It is that the concentration of all governmental power in the hands of 
one man or of any liody of men is despotism. In his inaugural address before the 
Historical Society, Jlr. G.vllatin aptly observed that the legislative body which 
jirescribes the general rule should not be permitted either to apjily it or to make 
exceptions from it for special cases. lie adds: " It is hardly possible that laws 
founded in justice should be oppressive, unequal, or special. Every deviation 
from that principle, in whatever shape or under whatever pretense, successively 
leads to others, so that it might ullimately happen that no scruple would be felt 
in jjassing iniquitous laws, that public and private confidence might be destroyed, 
respect for law be converted iuto contempt, and the basis of our institutions be 
shaken in its foundation by the general demoralization of the whole community." 

In prescribing the method by which effect should be given to this principle, 
authorities with one accord advise us that in every well-adjusted government 
there must be three co-ordinate and independent departments — the executive, 
legislative, and judicial. This none dispute; but, strange to say, no such division 
of power has ever been practically established anywhere. Three organisms bearing 
these names have indeed been created in all our American Constitutions, State 
and Federal; but in none has there been in essentials any such actual distribution 
of ])ower as the ]n'inciple di'mands. Universally the Legislature or law-making 
body has in practice absorbed all authority. The duty of the so-called Chief 
Executive is to perform its will ; the judiciary can exercise no authority save in 
like conformity to its temporary and fluctuating behests, wise or unwise. Thus 
it is apparent that, wliile the doctrine stated is universally acknowledged to be 
soimd, it has always been ignored in practice. Ignored is precisely the proper 
term to be applied ; for those who, in framing constitutions, or acting under them, 
have plainly and constantly violated the rule, seem never to have had any design 
to subvert it, or to have possessed even a consciousness of the fact that they were 
so trespassing. Under a real distribution of power, the rules by which private 
rights are protected and public interests maintained, would be general in their 
effect, and not made for isolated cases or things, or to advance or repress the 
interests of jiarticular persons. No other rules than such as are thus general in 
their bearing are properly denominated laws. Political science and the common 
lexicon alike declare that an authority which is rightly termed legislative can 
make no other enactments than such as are thus general. Conferring a personal 
or corporate privilege, directing a particular act, a specified work, the payment of 
a sum of money, or the liquidation of a particular man's demand upon the public 
treasury, is an executix'c function, and in no respect a law. A functionary or 
body which, in a right use of language, is intrusted with legislative power only, 
can do none of these things. This definition of legislative or law-making power 
suffices also to explain the nature of the executive and judicial functions. The 
former is properly created to perform, in compliance with the standing rules 
established by the Legislature, all go\-enunental acts which the public good may 
require. Law is always general in its behests; the ap[ilication alone is special. 
Tile executive department should make the application in all cases. That depart- 
ment always acts at its peril. It is a subject of responsibility in the judicial 
fonun for the legality of all its doings. In their not misconceived admiration vi 
English methods the Fathers omitted to enforce this distinction. They permitted 
all our U-gislativc bodies to pass special a<'ts, and thus to usurp executive func- 



The New York Historical Society. 15 

tions. Favoritism and injustice bj' tlie Government were necessary consequences. 
Barter jiiul sale of tlie legislators' votes mi<rlit have been predicted as inevitable 
aecompauinients; and that practice has jjrevailed until at last, in recent times, 
the waters of corruption rolled over us as a deluge. Peculation rode riotously 
through the departments; it could be held to responsibility in none. 

Tlie very nature of legislation proves the necessity of prohibiting special acts 
of an executive nature under the form and guise of laws. It is manifest that all 
official power should be exercised under eHectivc responsibility. Every actor in 
any specific governmental transaction should be liable to answer for his conduct 
before some authority in the State. "When the Executive performs an official act 
its validity may be tested before the judiciary. If the members of that dei)art- 
meiit fail in their duty, the j)0wer of impeachment affords a remedy. But when 
our legislators rifle the public treasiu-y, the very exercise of legislative power by 
which the crime is eCected enshrines their moral guilt in the panoply of lawful- 
ness. 

At its first presentment this might seem a novel conception, for Britain, our 
great exemplar in civil institutions, is governed iu all the details of administration 
by a Parliament. The much-talked-of distribution of powers in that country is 
merely nominal. Under the misnomer of legislation, its Parliament exercises all 
the authority and functions of government. The pretended division there, pre- 
cisely as with ourselves, is formal only. It is altogether fanciful and unreal ; Par- 
liament is supreme in all things. Yet the Fathers cannot justly be reproached for 
adopting this model. In the great task undertaken by them the whole basis of 
their structure was essentially new and unprecedented. Every thing fundament- 
ally vicious in pre-existing institutions Avas repudiated. It is only in the arrange- 
ment of subordinate details that any error can be detected, and even here the wis- 
dom of their com-sc is not questionable. To make every thing new iu conception 
or conformable to imtried theories was not likely to give general satisfaction; 
they therefore adopted the best known example and set on foot a pai-liamentary 
government. Om- century of experience has been to us a school of instruction. 
Tlu-ough much of good and no slight measure of evil we have been led to the dis- 
cernment of many things not fully known or appreciated in the Re\olutionary era. 
Therefore, not merely excusing the Fathers, but jiistifying and applauding them, 
let us try whether we can now see their well-chosen model iu a clearer light than 
was afforded to them. 

In the climax of her greatness, Athens subjected to the empire of that small 
aristocratic class who, politically speaking, constituted her people, a great multi- 
tude at home and many foreign colonies and dependent people ; in like manner Rome 
ruled over the nations. Britain is, and long has been, in a condition precisely 
like unto that of those ancient States. None will deny her claims to respect as 
the originator of countless practical benefits to mankind, as in theory the founder 
of civil liberty and as a fostering parent of useful art, of science and of literature ; 
but still little attention is needed to a discernment of the fact that her govern- 
ment belongs to the ancient school. Her excjuisitely adjusted machinery of 
primogeniture and entail, coupled with her hereditary peerage, has enabled that 
comparatively small number constituting her upper and middle classes to rule 
over 20,000,000 of her own laboring population and more than 200,000,000 of 
colonial subjects. In a word, nearly if not quite one-fifth of the himian race is 
suljject to her parliamentary government. The vast debt contracted in establish- 
ing her dominion of the seas and her foreign colonial power is manifestly a great 



16 Centennial Celebrations. 

souvqf nf ('iijoynu'iit to her favored classes. It is almost entirely held by them, 
and its creation has enabled her to control the trade and commerce of vast exter- 
nal possessions; consequently, while it enriclies individuals it is not felt as a pub- 
lic burden. The British empu'c, in a political sense, consists exclusively of these 
favored classes ; they enjoy the wealth of nations through the agency of their 
Parliament. That body is an engine in their own hands constantly employed, 
like the active partners of a great mercantile firm, in promoting the common 
interest. Among its creations is the enormous military, naval and civil service 
which gives to these very ruling classes employments innumerable by land and 
sea throughout a captive world. The incompatibility of such extensive govern- 
mental service with om- political institutions may deserve the notice of those who 
have devoted themselves to the establishment in this country of a ci^dl service 
reform. Schools for breeding offlce-holders is an English idea and had its 
origin in the peculiarity just mentioned. With deference it may be suggested 
that we have already office-seekers enough. Perhaps a deliberate attempt to 
increase the number should not be pushed to extremes. The stir of preparation 
for defense against anticipated arraignment at the bar of public opinion on account 
of its foreign domination is discernible in the movements of English society. 
Literature in all its forms, from the stately two-volimie octavo down to the tran- 
sient suggestions of the daily press, is employed, not merely in justification, but 
in jjraise of the colonial policy. Its benevolence is highly commended on the 
asserted ground that no income is derived from the colonies whilst the parent 
State defrays the chief expense of their government. Their happy condition in 
ha\'ing their country and its internal and external interests defended without cost 
to themselves by British fleets and armies, is favorably contrasted with that of 
such orphaned countries as the United States ! AVe are cast destitute upon our own 
resources, and are compelled to expend millions on similar instruments for self- 
jirotection ! ! No parent takes care of us ! ! ! These circumstances are not here 
adduced as proving that om- Declaration of Independence was a fib and a folly, 
but only for the incidental purpose of showing how different in principle and 
practice is the parliamentary government of Great Britain from any proper office 
of the State as contemplated by the founders of our Republic. 

It was not designed that we should ever have any subjects or tributaries. The 
Fathers surveyed a vast territory with every desirable variety of climate and pro- 
ductiveness. As far as political institutions could accomplish the object, they 
destined it to be the abode of a peojile maintaining peaceful relations toward all 
foreign States, and enjoying perfect equality among themselves. Deeply averse 
to the injustice and violence which constituted the staple of all previous history, 
they determined to exempt their country from similar experiences. They declared 
this in many forms, but in none more aptly expressive than that employed by 
New York's first Constitution. It announced that we were "required by the 
benevolent principles of rational liberty to expel civil tyranny, and to guard 
ao-ainst that spiritual oppression and intolerance Avherewith the bigotry and ambi- 
tion of weak and wicked priests and i)nnces had scourged mankind." States- 
manship was known to the fathers mainly as exhibited in the annals of time. It 
there appears as an art whereby, in all climes and ages, the few have contrived 
to oppress the many ; and it certainly was not intended to vest in the governments 
to be instituted among us any power that in its normal operations could be wres- 
ted to such purposes. It was expressly designed that the newly-created govern- 
ments should never lie nilers over any outside barbarians. Consequently, if extor- 



The New York Historical Society. 17 

tion or oppression wa.s lo Ije uUowcd, tlic Fathers could liavc seen that it must be 
practiced within our own i'ountry and ]ty some portion of its citizens upon tlieir 
own free and eipial l>retliren. ' But tlie apparent benignity of British parliament- 
ary rule prevented a perception of the fact, obvious as it was to abstract tliouglit, 
that tlie law-making department, if intrusted with authority to operate directly 
on specified persons and transactions by special act, would — as a necessary and 
inevitable consecjuence of lunnan weakness — become corrupt and oppressive. 
The frugality and simplicity of prevailing habits, and tlie absence of great individ- 
ual wealth or inordinate individual ambition, diverted attention from the manifest 
difierence in this respect between the British system and the American conception 
of government. The necessity of expressly defining and limiting the power of legis- 
lation was not perceived; and thus it has happened that that task is devolved upon 
us at this day when we are entering upon the era of contemplated reform. It 
should not be impracticable when graceful confessions of past misconduct are con- 
stantly falling from the lips of both political parties and the promise of amendment 
is the battle-cry of each. It is, therefore, our duty carefully to investigate jDast 
errors, and to demand and enforce such constitutional changes as may prevent 
tlieir recurrence. A proper preliminary step is to adjust the principles which 
should guide us. 

Our greatest error in the past was this investiture of the legislative body \vith 
discretionary power to govern by special act. As an instrument in the hands of 
organized faction it operates for personal ends ; it wrings from the multitude the 
fruits of their industry and the just acquisitions of lawful individual eilort by 
themselves or their sires. What has been said concerning the impropriety of per- 
mitting legislative bodies to exercise executive powers, or, in other words, to pass 
s])ecial acts, is by no means a novel conception. Quite the contrary ; a struggle 
on the part of the people to enforce it against the politicians who dominate over 
tliem has been long progressing. At an early period the business of banking was 
virtually converted into a franchise. It was confined to the favorites of the Legis- 
lature. In 1822, a constitutional provision was enacted to restrain in like man- 
ner the formation of corporate bodies for the transaction of any business what- 
ever. After a violent and protracted struggle the popular will triumphed over 
both of these devices. The general Banking Law originating in 1838 was the 
result. This curb upon special legislation was imposed by public sentiment at a 
period so near the framing of a new Constitution in 1846, that its recognition in 
that instrument was literally compelled. In express terms it forbade the Legisla- 
ture to grant any special charter for banking purposes, and thus that business 
was thrown open to free competition. The enactment of special charters for pri- 
vate or trading corporations of all kinds was subjected to a similar prohibition. 
Here, liowever, great weakness and vacillation marked the conduct of those who 
framed that Constitution. S])ecial corporate acts were tolerated in cases where 
the Legislature might consider that the object could not be attained by general 
laws. This hesitation in applying a benign reformatory principle left legislation 
subject to many of the pre-existing abuses. One striking instance will readily 
occur, that is to say, the celebrated and justly cen.sured Classification Act of 1809. 
The principle of forbidding s]>(fial acts was again approved by the people in 1874. 
A constitutional proliibitidn applicable to a large number of enumerated cases was 
adopted in that year. It was also enjoined upon the Legislatm-e to enact general 
laws providing for these and all other cases in which such a reform might be 
found practicable. 

3 



1 8 Centennial Celebrations. 

The sovereign will thus expressed in the amendment of 1874 attests the general 
desire to confine the Legislature to its proper province, to wit: making laws. 
But the language employed in that provision is imperfect, and the sphere of its 
oiH'ratiou is unduly limited. Though forced by startling and intolerable abuses 
to ai)ply the great principle now advocated, the framers of the amendment may 
not have intended to do so in an clfectual manner. Indeed, it is possible that 
they did not comprehend the principle itself. But the electoral body — the 
sovereign people — saw and approved it. Small and imperfect as was the install- 
ment of needful reform placed within their reach in each of these constitutional 
amendments, they acted wisely in adopting it. Their great need, however, can- 
not be suiiplied by a set of specified restraints in named cases. Still less is the 
relief effectual, when, as in the last-mentioned instance, it is confusedly expressed. 
The legislative power should be distinctly defined in the fvmdamental law so as 
to admit only the enactment of general rules for our officers and people. Only 
occasional and short legislative sessions would then be required. This single step 
would go far toward abolishing the pernicious trade of politics — that fruitful parent 
of all the evils that afflict our country. 

The masses are honestly devoted to the common weal ; but in no just sense can 
they be regarded as component elements of either political party. The will of 
the commanding general it is that guides the military force. He hurls it against 
the enemy ; in fact, he is himself the force ; the soldiers are mere machines. So 
it is also in the public conflicts of civil life. A few leaders in each political camp 
constitute the party; no others influence its movements or are in any just sense 
members of it. They arc merely its instruments. And when it is considered 
that, as before stated, the names borne by the two parties at this day import 
nothing distinctive, and that the principles professed by the leaders of each are 
absolutely identical, how can reason regard the so-called parties as other than 
factions engaged in a selfish rivalry for official power and patronage ? How, 
then, are our property and our liberties to be protected ? Most certainly not by 
these office-seeking f actionists ; nor by their respective bands of hirelings who 
perform the mechanical drudgery of manipulating ward or county meetings and 
nominating conventions. It can be effected only through the intelligent action 
of those ni the electoral body who do not pursue politics as a business, or seek 
cither maintenance or profit or titular advancement through the special action of 
Government in theu- favor. But how, it may be asked, aie these to be rescued 
from the grasp of the politicians, who now hold them as thralls ? In answering 
this inquiry, we are naturally led to consider what ought to be our plan of gov- 
ernment or our jiolitical system in the future. 

Great social c\ils arc felt, and it is vainly imagined that relief from them can be 
had through changes in party rnle and through the supervening action of Govern- 
ment. This is a mistake. Governments may create evil; they cannot suppress 
it. Society, by the individual action of its private members in the ordinary pur- 
suits of life, supplies the commonwealth with the vital current which creates and 
sustains national jirosperity. To be let alone by politicians and intermeddling 
officials is all that society needs. To secure that immunity through the constitu- 
tional law of the fxiture is the task devolved upon us. To effect this, we need no 
new-A\Titten Constitutions of expanded proportions, and filled wth minute and 
detailed provisions concerning the terms. com]>ensation, and jjowers of officials. 
These are matters of detail, which, in general, may be left to occasional adjust- 
ment. 



The New York Historical Society. 19 

A ^vTitten Constitution, the distinctive featuru in American methods, is not 
distinguisliaMe in priiieiple from any other hiw. If there ever was a distinction, 
it is being rapidly oMitcrated by continual changes and extensive amplilication. 
That first Constitution under which we lived for so many years was framed and 
put in operation by a convention of delegates selected and assembled with less 
formality tlian usually attends the choice of an annual Legislature. The early 
Constitutions of our sister States were in general adopted in the same manner.^ It 
seems not to have been tliought at the beginning that a vote of the people was 
necessary to give validity to an organic plan of government. Other Constitutions 
in this and the sister States have provided a means for their own amendment or 
for the substitution of new Constitutions in theu- stead. But it is thoroughly 
established that the methods thus prescribed are not imperatively controlling. A 
learned writer has suggested that unless those methods be followed, a preparatory 
convention should be resorted to; but such a i)relimLnary step is not requisite. It 
would seem to be the unwritten paramount law, established by necessity, reason 
and public sentiment that a State Constitution newly framed, either wholly or in 
part, may be adopted without any otiier forms by a majority of the people at an 
election held in conformity with a i)rior law authorizing and regulating the vote. 
Our highest judicial tribunal is iniderstood to have decided in the ease of Dorr's 
Rhode Island insuiuection, that without some such act of formal consent by the exist- 
ing government, a new organic law cannot be adopted or put in force. If this be a 
correct view of our system, a new State Constitution can always be adopted within 
a very short time after a clear majority of the people have so determined — say six 
or eight weeks. 

At any time since the magnetic telegraph came into use, both Houses of Congress, 
acting by a two-thirds vote, might change the Federal Constitution in a single 
day, provided three-fourths of the States' Legislatures should concur. It may 
thus be seen that little if any thing toward insuring perpetuity or controlling the 
will of a jiopular majority was effected by the device of written Constitutions. 
The endurance, vigor, and virtue of those fundamental principles which, in fact, 
are our Constitution, depend wholly upon the intelligence and patriotism of our 
jieople. And these are amjjly sufficient for all purposes unless we allow scheming 
managers to control, for selfish objects, the machinery of elections. Popular elec- 
tion is the organ by wliich the sujireme power speaks. All will be well if it 
can be defended from luilawful force and exempted from the operations of fraud. 
It is, in the very nature of things, imiwssible that a majority of the people should 
ever become so degraded as willingly to destroy their own dearest interests. 

Our State Constitution of the future should declare the principles of civil and 
religious liberty as heretofore^; no new or more specific statement of them is 
needed. But it should perfectly separate the great departments of government 
1>V strictly defining and limiting the powers of the legislative body. This may be 
ditHeult, but it is not inijiossible. It should forbid any public body or functionary 
to create, by taking up loans of money, any new public debt at any time or under 
any circumstances. It should reorganize the legislative department by abolishing 
the pernicious system of single districts and restoring to the communities .socially 
established, such as cities and villages, the right of representation. The futile 
duplicity of chambers should be dispensed with as a needless complexity. Once 
the pernicious privilege of pa.ssing private or special acts was taken away, all laws 
would become similar to what constitutional amendments now are, and it is well 



20 Centennial Celebrations. 

known that the convention, which is the favorite agent for framing these, has, in 
every instance of its use, been composed of a single cliamber. 

AVitliholiliug executive power from tlie Legislature should not l^e allowed to 
produce a mischievous excess of authority in the Chief Magistrate. On the con- 
trary, there should be a corresponding reform in that quarter. That otHce should 
not be elective. It should be filled by lot every month from the representative 
body. This would impress upon our people the necessity of electing none as 
legislators but such as were competent to the higher ofSce. The brevity of the 
term would prevent serious mischiefs from incompetency where it happened to 
supervene, and no man would devote a life of effort to keeping on foot intermin- 
able election broils, for the purpose of securing himself a long term of semi-regal 
power over his countrymen. Refonns approximately similar should be instituted 
in the general government by altering the Federal Constitution. 

These changes are few and simple. They would abolish faction and the trade 
of politics. 

No mischief could result from them. God-like ambition, and even that emu- 
lation which incites to accumulating wealth, would find ample employment in the 
pursuits of private life. There is no benefit to society in the frivolous and factit- 
ious privileges that result to individuals from official dignity or official titles, and 
from the mischievous power of exercising governmental authority over others for 
self-aggrandizement. 

Very controlling arguments might be offered to prove that in thus substantially 
extinguishing the great office of President, no sound public policy would be vio- 
lated, nor any blight thrown upon the seemingly praiseworthy ambition of the 
demigods who from time to time arise among us, and, captivated by the far-off 
prize, spend their lives in prodigious displays of ability for the purpose of estab- 
lishing their claim to it. It is esteemed the most admirable feature in the British 
system of government that the chief magistracy is beyond the reach of any sub- 
ject. Indeed, the fact that it eliminates this high honor from the attainabilities of 
human effort or human desire, is the only practical service the crown can be said 
to perform in the working of the British Constitution as now established. That 
it cost a large sum of money is its only other eilect on English affairs. It is com- 
mon knowledge that the sovereign interferes not at all in the public administra- 
tion. That formal functionary no longer exercises or would be permitted to 
exercise the veto power. But for a certain supposed necessity of deluding the 
imagination by parade, a piece of brass known as the official seal of State could as 
well perform all the duties of the British chief magistracy. The 'favorite of Par- 
liament for the time Vicing now controls the crown as perfectly as in the case sup- 
posed he could control tlie regal stamp. Plaudits in approval of this English 
arrangement resound through all political literature. Tlieir justice will be assented 
to l)y every sagacious observer of our demoralizing conflicts for the Presidential 
succession. The evils produced are an unavoidable consequence of placing such a 
■ prize in the arena of competition. Strifes for similar possessions cast a crimson 
shade over the pages of history. Their destructive consequences are well illus- 
trated by the bard of Avon. Macbeth is portrayed as originally valiant, loyal, and 
honorable. So pure and upriglit was his nature, that the fiendish arts of supernat- 
ural agents and the influence of woman's love were required to combine in his 
temptation : nor did a moment's peace attend his sensitive conscience after yield- 
ing to it. But the proffered prize was too great for human virtue. Once shown 
the path to such an eminence as the chieftainshii) of his country, no crime was so 



The Xkw York Historical Society. 21 

appalling as to deter from the effort to attain it. Treachery toward his friend, 
treason against liis sovereign, and red-handed murder of guests were perpetrated 
in the pursuit, because they were necessary. 

If we may judge the future by much of the past, no man inspired by a lauda- 
ble ambition should regret the removal of this glittering bauble from his .sight. 
Save in the rarely recurring cases in which military renown has captivated the 
public mind, those to whom natural gifts and laborious effort attracted just admir- 
ation have not been permittc'd to attain this exalted office. Witness the fortune 
of our great popular idols, C'i.-VY and Websteu. The manipulators of the conven- 
tion or of the ballot-box invariably set them aside and awarded the seat to per- 
sons comparatively little distinguished. 

Mr. Webster's discourse before this Society on the dignity of historical com- 
po.sitions must be in the memory of many now present. It was his last great effort 
among us, and was addressed to the elite of our city almost at the very close of 
his illustrious life. He had already passed three-score and ten. Yet how mag- 
nificent, how like an immortal was that presence ! None who witnessed the dis- 
play can ever forget it : 

"With grave 

Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd 

A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven 

Deliberation sat, and public care 

And princely counsel in his face . . . 

Majestic. . . . Sage he stood 

With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 

Tlie weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 

Drew audience and attention still as night 

Or summer's noontide air.'' 

Though an efficient bulwark of peace and union, the foremost champion of his 
party, and admired throughout the civilized world, Webster never could obtain 
even a nomination to the chair of state. His betrayers found their precedent in 
an ancient legend. It was in the beginning of time that the feathered tribe 
assembled to choo.se a ruler; and he was to receive the diadem who oould attain 
the greatest height. The majestic eagle when his wing had tired lieheld far 
beneath him, exhau.sted and descending to earth, the host of his vanquished rivals. 
He was about to pour forth his triumphant clarion, but lo ! the little wren, who, 
until that moment, had sat quietly and unfelt upon his bosom* now sprang aloft, 
and with a tiny cry announced himself the victor. Thus was elected the king of 
all birds. By some crafty device of this sort the politicians will ever .set aside the 
magnates. Those who, from their shining talents and their public services, might 
justly claim a preference, and who, if the people controlled, would receive it, will 
be apt to fail in future contests. If this regal eminence, the quadrennial presi- 
dency with its vast power and patronage, must remain elective, the paltry little 
wrens of faction, not the lordly eagles of the land, will almost invariably win and 
wear the purple. 

Let our coimtry be governed by general laws varied only as occasion may require, 
and then only by general enactments. As a happy result the thirty-nine mass- 
meetings who now spend each winter in contriving the methods of favoritism 
involved in paternal government may be employed more beneficially for them- 
selves and their country in the pursuits of industry. In such a career the sons of 
fame can find fairer and more desirable returns for the efforts of their Labor and 
tlieir skill than can possibly be reaped in the theaters of petty electioneering 
intrigue. 



22 Centennial Celebrations. 

Relieved from the embarrassing influence of governmental interference, Ameri- 
can genius can win its way to a high place in the ranks of competitive effort. It 
lias contended successfully for the palm in high art, and for equality in literature 
and learned research. In such marvelous achievements as utilizing steam-power 
and magnetism it took the lead ; nor will history pass unnoticed the fact that its 
discoveries in the less attractive forms of manufactures, machinery and mechanic 
art, have conferred lasting benefits upon mankind. The introduction of india- 
rubber in its limitless variety of uses, the cotton-gin, the reajDer, the mower and 
the seis-ing-machine, are testimonies of its power. Long ago the American lock- 
maker took precedence of the ablest in the Old World. We have at last excelled 
the Swiss, immemorial horologers, and our textile fabrics are rivaling those of the 
mother country in her own markets. 

It is said, and doubtless with truth, that great cities have hitherto been 
destroyers of the human race. A single American contrivance promises to correct 
this mischief. The cheap and rapid transportation of passengers on the elevated 
rail, when its capacity shall have been fully developed, will give healthful and 
pleasant homes in rural territory to the toiling millions of our commercial and 
manufacturing centers. It will snatch their wives and children from tenement- 
house horrors, and by promoting domesticity, greatly diminish the habits of 
intemperance and vice so liable to be forced upon the humbler classes, or nurtured 
in them by the present concomitants of their city life. 

Not in the moral pest-houses of politics, but in fields like these, is true renown 
to be acquired. Permanent endowments for the promotion of literature have 
insured lasting honor to the names of Astor, Lenox and Giraed. They will live 
forever in grateful memory along with the enduring charities of Roosevelt and 
Muhlenberg. 

Upon the conclusion of the address Geoege H. Mooee, LL. D., 
moved on behalf of the Society the following resolution : 

Besohed, That the thanks of this Society be and hereby are presented to Mr. 
Charles O'Conor for the masterly, eloquent and instructive address with which 
he has favored us this evening, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for 
publication. • 

The resolution was seconded by Judge John K. Poktee, who 
expressed in happy terms the general feeling of admiration for the 
memorable address of Mr. O'Conoe, which he prophesied would, like 
the speaker and the occasion, prove historic. 

The resohition was unanimously adopted, and the meeting adjourned. 



^xnQston. 



THE FIRST FOKMATION OF THE STATE. 



Peoceebings of ttte Celei]ratton at 

KlNGSTOl^. 



Tiie centeiiai-y of the .adoption of tlie Constitution of tlic State was 
celebrated at Kingston, wlicre the first State Government was foi'med, 
witli gi-cat and apj^ropriate displays, on Monda}', July 30, 1877. From 
the local press of that day, the following extracts are chosen to show 
tlic method of the celebration : 

" All day yesterday the weather tokens were eagerly watched and 
propliecies and ho]ics for the display to-day were equally l)lendi'd. 
Heavy rains fell during the night, and tlie day broke with weeping 
skies, l)ut it was ushered in by the booming of a hundred guns from 
the common down-town which was re-echoed by the guns up-town, and 
the ringing of the bells from the spires that point their taper fingers 
toward heaven proclaimed us a God-loving as well as a God-fearing 
people. Before the morning fairly dawned the city was festooned witli 
a forest of flags and garlanded with a parterre of flowers. Pul)lic 
buildings, places of Imsiness and private houses were gay with l)unting 
and evergreens, and the brave old flag floated from masthead and staff 
and balcony all along the city limits. The steam and sail craft in the 
stream had 

All their ensigiis diglit 

As if for a groat sea fight. 

■ The Dkcorations of Historic Kingston. 

The decorations in tlie upper part of the city were very fine. 
Ilardly a Imilding could be found that did not make some display. 

Oil Wall street all the stores and other places were handsomely 
decorated, notal)ly tliose of Bernstkin, Merritt & Co., which store 
also displayed a pair of slijipers tliat were made in 1763, also a Bible 



26 Centennial Celebrations. 

dated in 1741. On tlie front of Chas. B. Saffokd's there was suspended 
a large shield, that had been most tastefully gotten up by one of the 
young gentlemen. The court-house was decorated by bunting and flags 
which hung in graceful festoons from the windows, while in the door- 
way was a large inscription, as follows : " On this spot July thirtieth, 
1777, George Clinton of Ulster, seven times Governor and twice Vice- 
President of the United States, was inaugurated first Governor of New 
York." The trees in front were wrapped with bunting. On Clinton 
avenue could be seen the old house of F. L. AVestbkook, which had 
once been occupied by the Senate. On this building is a large inscrip- 
tion, "Senate of the" State of New York, 1775." Hon. F. L. West- 
brook's house was also decorated in a very tasty manner and made a 
fine appearance standing at the head of John street. 

On Albany avenue the dis]"ilay was perfectly magniflcent. The res- 
idences of General Sharpe, William B. Fitch, H. D. Darkow, Peter 
DuMOKT, Mrs. John Smitu, Peter Masten, C. J. Townsenp, Captain 
Jacob II. Tkejiper, Colonel Tkempek, Alderman Hayes, and General 
J. S. Smith were decorated from top to bottom, and the most of the 
trees in these fronts were also ornamental with flags that floated from 
the branches. 

All the ministers in that part of the city showed their patriotism by 
displaying from their houses and grounds flags and streamers. A fine 
flag waved from the house of Judge T. E. Westbeook. 

Among the old houses is that occupied by the Van Steenbukgh 
family, at the lower end of "Wall street, well known to be the oidy 
house not burned by the British in October, 1777. 

The Aeeivals. 

Large numbers of people came to the upper part of the city on 
Saturday night and the streets presented a lively appearance until a 
late hour. On Sunday the churches were crowded, among the congre- 
gations being a sprinkling of regimentals that gave these places of 
M'orship an unusually interesting appearance so far as concerned tem- 
poral matters. 

During the church service at night the preachers made appropriate 
mention of the Centennial to be celebrated on the morrow, they gen- 
erally treating it in a mixed religious and secular vein, and the maimer 
in which they were listened to by the large congregation showed how 
interested they were in the coming event. Precisely at the hour of 
midnight, as the Centennial was ushered in, the bell of the First 
Heformed Church began to ring, Mliich was soon followed by the bells 
of the other churches, and those who were asleep sprang from their 



Kingston. 27 

beds <at first supposing it to be a fire alarm. These bells continued to 
peal for several minutes and then all was quiet again until 5 o'clock, 
when the whole jjlace, as if by magic, became all life and bustle. The 
bell rang out full and clear, jieal on peal, while the cannon belched 
forth a thundei'iug salute and the lioys exploded crackers and torpe- 
does, all of which made such a tremendous noise the most slothful were 
glad to leave their beds and decorate their houses in a style becoming 
the grand occasion. Before many houl's had passed the streets began 
to wear a briglit, picturesque look with gay flags, and red, white and 
blue decoration that could lie seen on nearly every house in the place. 

Tui'; Mii.rrARY Pkooession. 

At 12 noon the military was formed on the Sti'and, right resting on 
Union avenue, and the march was commenced in the following order: 

1. Mivjor-Gciicral .Tames W. IItstkd, Grand JIarshal, and Staff as Aids. 

2. Colonel .Tonx McEntkk, Marshal of the Daj', and Aids. 

3. Fiftli Division N. G. S. N. Y., comprising the Seventli Brigade, Brigadier- 

General Bl.\uvelt eommanding, consisting of the Sixteenth Battalion, 
Twenty-seventli Regiment, and Troop of Cavalry ; Eighth Brigade, Briga- 
dier-General (tEOUce Pakker commanding, consisting of the Twentieth 
Battalion, Twenty-tirst Regiment and Battery A. 

4. 'Various Military Organizations. 

5. Washington Continentals, detachment of Tenth Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., 

of Albany, with Boring's Band. 
G. Ex-Govcrnors of the State. 

7. National, State imd Coimty Officers and other distinguished guests. 

8. Orators of the Day. 

0. Board of Supervisors of Ulster County. 

10. Mayor and Common Council of the City of Kingston. 

11. Civic Societies. 

12. Fire Department and Visiting Firemen. 

i:?. .Jackson Corps of Albany, with Austin's (formerly Sullivan's) Band. 

14. Tibbets Veteran (lorps of Troy, Col. Egolp. 

1.5. Tibbets Cadets of Troy, Captain J. H. Patten. 

10. Battery B, N. G. S. N. Y., of Troy, Captain Green. 

IT. Trojan Hook and T^adder Company No. 3, of Troy, Foreman iNORAjr. 

18. Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, of Albany, Foreman FREDENnAi.i.. 

Coxsackie Post G. A. R., of Cox.sackie, A. V. D. Coi.yer, Commandant. 

Centennial Mounted Minute Men from the several towns. 

The procession moved amidst thousands of spectators to the grove 
called the Centennial Groimds, where, after a Review of the P'ifth 
Division of the National Guard by Maj.-General J.\jii?:s W. 
HusTED, an invocation was nuule by Rev. J. G. Van Slyke, and the 
oratorical ceremonies were begun by Judge T. R. Westbrook, with 
the followinn; : 



28 Centennial Celebrations. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Honored Guests and Fellow-Citizens op the State of New York : 

To me has been assigned the pleasant duty of bidding you, one and all, welcome 
to this historic ground, which, one hundred years ago to-day, witnessed the inau- 
guration of tlie first government of the Emjiire Commonwealth under a written 
Constitution emanating from the will of its people, and which in its first section 
enunciates this grand principle, " that no authority shall, on any pretense what- 
ever, be exercised over the people, or members of this State, but such as shall be 
derived from and granted by them." 

How well, and wisely our fathers reared the structure of the future majestic 
State upon that great cornerstone of republican truth, you and we are here this 
day to declare and commemorate. As we review the history of the century, 
which has just closed, and recall the marvellous growth and development of the 
Colony, which, with its beginning, was made a State, in population, wealth, 
material development, civil and religious liberty, our hearts exult with honest 
pride, and a common anthem of praise issues from all our lips to Him, who gave 
to our fathers the courage and wisdom to found, and to their children and succes- 
sors the like wisdom and courage to preserve the structure of the State, which 
to-day we call ours. 

Throughout all its borders, from the Imperial City, which rests queenly by its 
ocean's gateway, to its numerous bright and smaller sisters, and to all the villages 
and abodes of industry and peace, the laws which govern, and the hands which 
execute them come from the peojjle, and are only the creations of their wisdom, 
and the representatives of their power. The unfettered genius of our people has, 
by steam and wind, made of river and lake rapid arteries of travel and commerce, 
and across mountain and plain, upon highways of its own creation, is now trans- 
porting the wealth of a great nation, which, thank God, is yet "one and 
inseparable." 

To-day we rejoice together over the way by which a Divine hand has led us. 
"We all, those of us who are allied by birth and blood to the men of the Revolu- 
tion, and those who have come to us from other shores, both sharers in the bless- 
ings and privileges they won and bequeathed. Children alike, whether by bii-th or 
adoption, to-day call them Fathers, as we recount and recall their heroism, their 
devotion, their wisdom. We forget none of the trials, the diflBculties, nor the 
progress of the past. They are all ours. The legacy of bravery and honor 
bequeathed to \is by New York's fallen sons in the recent great struggle for the 
Nation's indivisibility, as well as the laurels won by those who have returned to 
us, are all om's. And, as to-day we see order and peace from the ocean's waves to 
the waters of the great lakes, as to-day we witness the triumph of law over riot 
— the prompt suppression of mob and lawlessness, the pride is also ours to know 
that the self-reliance derived from our fathers taught us to look to the arm of the 
State, and not to that of the Nation for deliverance and safety ; and that we so 
recently witnessed, in the conduct of our volunteer soldiers, the wisdom of that 
organic enactment which one hundred yeai's ago declared, "that the militia of 
this State, at all times hereafter, as well in peace as in war shall be armed and 
disciplined, and in readiness for service." 



Kingston. 29 

Ont'O more, iti the ii:iiiic :m(l in Ijchall' (if o\ir historic city, I bid ytni wclfonic. 
Arouiul us are the same graiiil old mountains which witnessed tlie birtli of our 
State. This beautiful plain and yonder smiling valley, filled uj) with happiness and 
beauty, still smile as they then smiled upon the new Commonwealth. Close 
liesidc us is the road over which a few months later, the soldiers of a foreign 
monarch marched to burn and waste the spot wliich cradled it. May the century 
now begun, if it does bring with it, as the past has done, trial, jK'ril and death,' 
have as peaceful an end as that just closed, and the new one to be born -witness 
as this does, a powerful and mighty republican State, wherein dwell a happy, 
united, and [irosperous people. 



ADDEESS OF HON. CITAUNCEY M. DEPEW. 

Ffllow Citizens • 

Centennial celebrations crowd upon us. Appropriate commemorations of events 
of the revolutionary period are the pleasure and duty of the year. jNIost of them 
are upon historic battle fields, and recall the feats of ai-ms of our victorious ances- 
tors. ' 

The occasion which calls us together has deeper significance than any battle. It 
is the anniversary of the declaration and establishment of those principles of con- 
stitutional liberty, without which the continental soldier liad fought and died in 
vain. The story of the formation and expression of popular opinion upon popu- 
lar rights during the colonial era, its development in the Constitution of 1777, 
and its results for a century, can only be sketched in the limits of an address. 
Unlike the other colonies, New York had no chartered rights ; there were no 
limitations on the royal prerogative, and it was only by long and continued strug- 
gles that any immunities or privileges were secuicd. The Dutch had brought 
with them fi-om Holland ideas of toleration and liberty, of which that country was 
for a time the only asylum in the world ; the English colonists were tirm in their 
devotion to representative government. By every process short of revolution dur- 
ing the early period of the English rule the arbitrary exactions of the Royal Gov- 
ernors were resisted, and the demands for an assembly of the people never ceased. 
The claim was based upon the natural and inherent rights of a free people. 

In 1()83, the home government, unable longer to resist, called together an assem- 
bly elected by the people. It was the dawn of re]iresentative governnient in New 
York. The tirst assembly of our ancestors immediately asserted and enacted 
into laws the fundamental principles of civil liberty. They passed a law for a 
trieimial assembly ; they declared all power to vest in the Governor, Council 
and p(i)])le met in general assembly. The privileges of members of Parliament 
were conferred upon the assembly and its members ; their consent must be had to 
the levy of any tax, and all the guarantees contained in Magna Charta, in the bill 
of rights, in the liabeas corpus act, together with trial by jury, and freedom of 
conscience in matters of religion, were declared to be the rights, liberties and 
privileges of the inhabitants of New York. They created the township — that 
.school of self-government — provided the civil divisions upon the ])lan which has 
substantially prevailed ever since, and organized superior and inferior courts for 
the administration of justice. The rights and liberties thus established were often 



30 Centennial Celebrations. 

violated and arbitrarily suspended or denied, but every repetition of such tyranny 
only served to inflame to passionate devotion the people's love of liberty, and to 
prepare the way for the Declaration of Independence. Ninety-three years after 
this memorable assertion of popular rights, petition and remonstrance having alike 
failed, the people determined to peril life and fortune to maintain and enlarge 
them. In 1776, New York was without a regular government. The Council was 
dissolved ; the General Assembly prorogued, and the Royal Governor a fugitive 
under the protection of the guns of the British fleet. 

The Provincial Congress sitting in New York owed its existence to the necessi- 
ties of the times. It was a revolutionary body, its only charter an election by the 
people. On the 15th of May of that year the Continental Congress, then sitting in 
Philadelphia, adopted a resolution i^questing the respective assemblies and con- 
ventions of the United Colonies " where no government sufficient for the exigen- 
cies of their afliairs had been established, to adopt such government as should, in 
the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and 
safety of their constituents in particular and America in general. " 

They also recommended the suppression of all authority derived from the crown 
of Great Britain, and the assumption and exercise of government under authority 
from the people of the colonies. Of the thirteen colonies, all, except Rhode 
Island and Connecticut, adopted the recommendation. Their charters did not 
reserve to the crown the control over or veto ujjon their internal affairs, and with 
them such action was unnecessary. Virginia's constitution was first, and New 
York's fifth, in the order of adoption. 

A few days after the passage of this resolution the Provincial Congress met in 
New York. Governeur Morris, a delegate from the county of Westchester, then 
but twenty-four years of age, signalized his entrance into public life, by urging 
immediate action, in a speech remarkable for its courage and radicalism, and its 
strong presentation of the thought of the time. He boldly declared that recon- 
ciliation with the mother country was a delusion, and that peace, liberty and 
security could only be had by independent government, and moved that a com- 
mittee be appointed to draw up a plan for the frame of a government. 

These men, acting upon well-understood principles, and jealous of every 
assumption of power, thought that this Congress was not elected for this purpose. 

A committee was finally appointed, to whom the whole subject was referred, 
and on the 37th of May they reported "that the right of framing, creating or 
remodelling civil governments, is and ought to be in the people," that the old 
form of government was dissolved and a new form was absolutely necessary, and 
that, as doubts existed whether the Provincial Congress had power to act, the 
people of the Colony bo called to elect a new Congress specially instructed upon 
the question of a new government. This report is remarkable as the earliest, 
clearest and most emphatic declaration of the doctrine of popular sovereignty. 
It was New York's contribution to American liberty, learned by more than half a 
century of incessant struggle of the representatives elected by the people with the 
representatives of the royal power. 

The re^iort of the committee was adopted, and on the 31st a series of resolu- 
tions, prepared by Mr. Jay, were passed, calling upon the several counties to elect 
a new body, with power to form a new government, and instructed also upon the 
question of imitcd colonial independence. In the meantime the seat of war was 
transferred to New York. On Sunday afternoon of the 30th of June, the British 
fleet and armv under Lord Howe having entered the harbor, the Congress, appro- 



Kingston. 31 

hensive of an at(;i<k by Hie I'licmy, resolved that the next Congress should meet 
at White Plains, in the county of Westchester, and adjourned. On the 9th of 
July, 177G, the newly-elected delegates met at the court-house in that place and 
elected General Woodluill President, and John McKesson and Robert Berrian 
Secretaries. During the forenoon a letter was received from the delegates of New 
York, in the Continental Congress, inclosing the Declaration of American Inde- 
pendence, wluch had been ado})ted on the 4th. 

It was immediately read and referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. 
Jay, Yates, Hobart, Brashier and Wm. Smith. It was a critical moment for 
tliese men. They had been just elected; only a few hours had elapsed since they 
had qualified and entered ujiou their duties, and now their first legislative act was 
to make up their record upon an issue which, if successful, made them ])atriots; 
if it failed, traitors and felons. How firm was their resolve; how clear their pur- 
pose; how serene their minds, is evidenced by the fact that on the afternoon of 
the same day the committee reported resolutions concurring in the Declaration, 
fully adopting it, and instructing our delegates in the General Congress to support 
the same, and give their united aid to all measures necessary to obtain its 
object. 

The convention immediately adopted the report. On the morning of the next 
day, the 10th of July, this body " Resolved and ordered, that the style and title 
of this House be changed from that of the ' Provincial Congress of the Colony 
of New York,' to that of 'The Convention of the Representatives of the State of 
New York,'" and thus on the 10th day of July, 1776, the State of New York 
was born. In the afternoon of the 10th, they resolved to enter on the 16th upon 
the formation of a State government, but by that time the situation of affairs 
here became too alarming for deliberation. Washington was contemplating the 
abandonment of New York. British ships of w'ar were anchored off Tarrytown, 
within six miles of where they were sitting. Their whole attention was occupied 
in raising troops and sujiplies, and providing for the public order. On the lOtli 
they po.stponed the question till the 1st of August. In the meauwhile they pro- 
\-isionally ordained that all magistrates and civil officers, well affected toward inde- 
pendence, continue the exercise of their duties until further orders, except that 
all processes thereafter must issue in the name of the State of New York, and 
declared it to be treason and pvmishable with death for any one living within the 
State and enjoying the j)roteetiou of its laws to adhere to the cause of the king of 
Great Britain or levy war against the State in his behalf. 

With dangers threatenhig on every hand, the British fleet in possession of New 
York bay, the Hudson river and Long Island soimd, a veteran army in overwhelm- 
ing numbers but a few miles distant, thus boldly and fearlessly did the Represent- 
atives of New York assert her sovereignty. On the 27th of July the convention 
found it necessary to remove to Harlem, and there, on the 1st of August, on 
motion of Governeur Morris, and seconded by Mr. Ducr, a committee was 
a|)pointed to prepare and report a constitution or form of government. 

This committee was compo.sed of the most eminent men in the convention and 
in the Commonwealth. For a generation after independence was achieved a 
majority of them cotitiiuied to receive, in positions of honor and trust, the high- 
est marks of the eontideuce and affection of their countrymen. Their labors in 
the Cabinet and in Congress, in the State Legislature and upon the bench, and in 
file diplomatic service, form the brightest pages in the history of the nation and 
the State. 



32 Centennial Celebrations. 

John Jay was Chairman, and his associates were Goverueur Morris, Rob- 
ert R. Livingston, William Duer, Abraham and Robert Yates, General 
Scott, Colonel Broome, Mr. Hobart, Colonel DeWitt, Samuel Towusheud, 
William Smitli and Mr. Wisner. The Committee were to report on the IGth of 
August, 1770; but such was the perilous condition of the State, and so manifold 
the duties of the members of the convention, that no report was made till 
March, 1777. The convention meanwliile, by the alarming situation of affairs, 
was migrating from place to place, and performing every class of public duty. 
It was a committee of public safety ; it was providing the ways and means to con- 
tinue the contest; its members were now serving in the Continental Congress, and 
again with the army; they were acting as judges and negotiators. To-day they 
were flying before the enemy, to-morrow furnishing protection for the soi-ely 
pressed Commonwealth. At one time meeting at Kingsbridge, then at Odell's 
in Phillip's Manor, then at Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, and finally at Kingston. At 
Fishkill, they supplied themselves with arms and ammunition, and thereafter 
legislated with their swords by their sides, literally building the peaceful fabric of 
constitutional government, in the very presence of the alarms, the perils and the 
carnage of war. On the 0th of March, 1777, at Kingston, the committee appointed 
to prepare a form of government were required to report on the following Wed- 
nesday, and on that day, the 13th, the committee made a report which was read 
by Mr. Duane. 

The draft was drawn by John Jay, and is in his handwriting. This draft 
was under discussion until the 20th of April, and underwent some amendments 
and additions. The leading minds in the debates, and in the introduction of the 
amendments adopted were John Jay, Governeur Morris, Robert R. Living- 
ston and Mr. Duane. The constitution, however, was finally passed almost as 
it came from the hands of Mr. Jay, and was adopted with one dissenting voice 
on the 30th of April, 1777. It was the evening of Sunday, the President, Gen- 
eral Ten Broeck, was absent, and also the Vice-President, General Pierre 
Van Cortlandt, but revolutions know neither days nor individuals. General 
Leonard Gansevoort, acting as President pro tem., attested the document. 

The same night Robert R. Livingston, General Scott, Governeur Morris, 
Abraham Yates, John Jay and Jlr. Hobart were appointed a committee to 
report a plan for organizing and establishing the form of government. They next 
directed one of the secretaries to proceed immediately to Fishkill, and have five 
hundred copies of the constitution, without the preamble, and twenty-five hun- 
dred with the preamble printed, and instructed him to give gratuities to the 
workmen to have it executed with dispatch. They then resolved that the con- 
stitution should be published on the next Tuesday, in front of the Court-house, 
at Kingston ; and the village committee were notified to prepare for the event. 
This latter body seem expeditiously and economically to have performed their , 
duty by erecting a platform upon the end of a hogshead, and from this, Vice- 
President Van Cortlandt presiding, Robert Berrian, one of the secretaries, 
read this immortal document to the assembled' people. The convention having 
l)romulgated their ordinance for the formation of the State government, and filled 
up, provisionally, the offices necessary for carrying it on until an election could 
be had, and apjiointed thirteen of their number to act as a committee of safety 
until the Legislature should assemble, adjourned sine die on the 13th of May, 
1777. Thus passed into history this remarkable convention. In lofty patriot- 
ism, steadfastness of purpose, practical wisdom and liberal statesmanship, it 



Kingston. 33 

liad few, if any, tquals, even among the legislative bodies of extiaordinarj- 
inerit whieh marked tlie era. Its address to the people, drafted by Jay, and 
declared by .Jeffeison the ablest document of tlie period, is a most com- 
pact and eloquent statement of the fundamental principles of free govern- 
ment, and was republished by Congress for the whole country, and translated 
into foreign tongues. Of the many distinguished men who were its members three 
stand out conspicuously, and form an uneijualed triumWrate of social distinction, 
cliaracter, culture and intellect. They were John Jay, Governeur Jlorris and 
Robert R. Livingston. All 3'oung men, possessing the best education of the 
time, belonging to the wealthiest families in the State, by birth and opportunity 
certain of royal favor, and having the largest stake in loyalty and stable govern- 
ment. They yet risked all, and periled their lives, for civil liberty and self-gov- 
ernment, .lolin Jay became Governor and cabinet minister and foreign envoy, 
and the first Chief Justice of the United States. Governeur Morris distin- 
guished himself in the councils of the nation and the diplomatic service of the 
country. Robert R. Livingston rendered the most eminent services, both to 
tliis State and the L'nited States, and in foreign courts. Their examples, efforts 
and contributions in educating and nerving the colonies to the Declaration of 
Independence, in the events which led to the recognition of the Republic, and in 
moulding the internal regulations and foreign policy of the new government, are 
tlie special pride of Xcw York and the glory of the nation. Xo one can to-day 
read the Constitution of 1777, without wondering how little we have been able 
to improve upon it in one hundred years. When we consider that purely repre- 
sentative government was then an almost untried experiment, this instrument 
becomes more and more an enduring monument to the wisdom and foresight of 
its framers. It begins with a preamble setting forth the causes which led to the 
formation of a separate government, and the authority conferred upon the con- 
vention by the people to do this work. It recites at length the Declaration of 
Independence, and the unanimous resolution of the convention on the 9th of July, 
1770, indorsing the declaration and instructing the New York delegates in the 
C/'ontinental Congress to give it their support. By virtue of wliich several acts 
and recitjils, says the preamble " .Vll power whatever in the State hath reverted 
to the people thereof, and this Convention hath, by their suffrages and free choice, 
been appointed and authorized to institute and establish such a government as 
they shall deem best calculated to secure the rights and liberties of the good peo- 
ple of this State." 

Its first section, which was unanimously .agreed to, is the key-note of its spirit. 
It ordained, determined and declared that no authority, on any pretense what- 
ever, should be exercised over the people or members of this State, but such .is 
should be derived from and granted by the people. 

The declarations of 1683 were to secure for British colonists every liberty 
granted by the crown to the British subject. The purpose of the men of 1777 
was to substitute the po])\ilar will for the royal prerogative, and natural riglits for 
charters wrung from the reluctant hands of hereditary power. 

Their experience with tlie colonial Governors had made them jealous and sus- 
picious of individual authority, and so, to prevent the passage of laws inconsist- 
ent with the spirit of the Constitiition, or the public good, they placed the veto 
power in the hands of a council of revision, consisting of the Governor, the 
Chancellor, and the Judges of the Supreme Court. All bills passed by the Legis- 
3 



34 Centennial Celebrations. 

lature were to be siibiiiitted t(i tliein, niul tlieir veto was absohite, unless the bill 
was repassed by two-thirds of each House. 

It followed the Englisli model in its Legislature, and ereated two bodies, Senate 
and Assembly, and vested in them all legislative power. The Senate, twenty-four 
in luimber, was to be elected for four yeai's by the fiecholders of their districts 
having freeholds of the value of over one hundred pounds, and the Assembly of 
seventy members for one year, by freeltolders possessing freeholds of the value of 
twenty pounds, or renting tenements of the yearly value of twenty shillings and 
l)aying ta.xes. Provision was made for increasing both branches, but the Senate 
was never to exceed one hiuulrcd or the Assembly three hundred. It was the 
miiversal belief of the time that those who paid the ta.xes and supported the gov- 
ernment should govern. I'niversal sull'rage was not deemed an inherent right, 
but a privilege to be hedged. about with restrictions and limitations, and while we 
have enlarged the limit, our legislation has always held to the theory, until 
recently, as to people of color, and still as to Avomen, and minors, and others. It 
was the change of sentiment on this great question which led to the convention 
and new constitution of 1831. The executive power was vested in a Governor 
and Lieutenant-Governor, to be chosen for three years, and to this term we have 
returned by an amendment adopted in 1874. The judicial power was vested in a 
Chancellor, and Judges of the Supreme Court ; and local county courts and a pro- 
bate judiciary were constituted, and they respectively held during good behavior, 
and until si.\ty-tive years of age; while a final appellate court, both in law and 
equity, ^^■as formed by the Senate, the Cluincellor, and the Judges of the Supreme 
Court. Says the most eminent authority of our time: "The first New York 
Judiciary administered public justice and protected private rights during the 
whole period of its existence, in a manner whicli satisfied our people and won 
applause from all disinterested observers." 

The appointing ])Ower was vested in a council of appointment, consisting of 
four Senators, selected annually by the Assemblj' who, with the Governor, were to 
form the council. To this body was given the appointment and removal of all 
officere in the State, except the chancellor, judges of the supreme court, and first 
judges of counties. As the State increased in wealth and population, the power 
and patronage of this cowicil became enormous. It controlled the polities of the 
Commonwealth for forty years, and, at the time of its abolishment, had within 
its gift (ifti'cn thousand offices. Such parts of the common law of England and 
the statute law of Great Britain and the colony of New York, not inconsistent 
with the independence of the State, as were in force on the 19th day of April, 
1775, were declared to be the law of New York, thus deliberately fixing in the 
fundamental law the day when the British soldiers fired upon the patriots at Lex- 
ington, as the close forever of the supremacy of British authority. 

The manner of voting was the subject of mvich discussion in the convention. 
The object was to get the freest and most unbiased expression of the popular 
will. At first the advocates of the viva wee vote seem to have had the majority; 
but this convention was wonderfiilly free from prejudice, or pride of opinion, or 
slavery to ])recedent. As stated in the constitiition, their object was to do that 
which best " would tend to preserve the liberty and equal freedom of the people." 
They were willing to fairly try any reasonable experiment. While the vote by 
ballot was negatived by two-thirds, a compromise was adopted by thirty-three to 
three, ordaining that, after the termination of the war, the Legislature should 
provide for all elections l)y ballot, and if, after full and fair trial, it was found less 



Kingston. 35 

coiulurivc to tlic safoty and interest of the Stnte, the viea rncf, practice might be 
restored. In 1787 tlie requisite law was enacted for voting by ballot, and that 
method has contimied ever since. 

The question of religious tolerance ex'cited great interest and the longest 
debate. By personal experience and family tradition theso men were very famil- 
iar with the results of bigotry and intolerance. With the exception of Holland, 
there was scarcely a place in the world where religious freedom was permitted. 
.John .lay. truc^ to his Huguenot recollections and training, threw the weight of 
his great influence and ability on the side of restriction. He moved to " except 
the professors of the religion of the church of Kome, \intil they should take oath 
that they verily believed that no pope, priest, or foreign authority, hath power to 
absolve the subjects of the State from allegiance, and unless they renounced the 
false, wicked and danmable doctrine that the pope has power to absolve men from 
their sins; " this having been voted down by nineteen to ten, it was then moved, 
" that this toleration shall not extend to justify the professors of any religion in 
distvu-biug the peace or violating the laws of this State." This too was rejected, 
and the convention, to their immortal honor and glory, established liberty of con- 
science in these memorable words: " This convention doth, in the name and by 
the authority of the good people of this State, nrdain, (htermine and declare that 
the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without dis- 
crimination or preference, shall forever hereafter be allowed within this State, to 
all mankind."' Thomas .Jefferson forced a like expression from Virginia, but 
with that exception, New York alone among the thirteen States began its exist- 
ence with absolute and untrammeled religious liberty. 

The Constitution provided for the naturalization of foreigners, for trial by jury, 
for a militia service with recognition of the Quakers, and for the protection of 
Indians within the State limits. Acts of attainder were prohibited, no person 
was to be disfranchised, except by law of the land or the judgment of his peers; 
freedom of debate in legislative bodies was secured ; parties impeached or indicted 
for crimes were to be allowed counsel as in civil cases, and the Legi-slature was 
prohibited from instituting any court except such as should proceed accord- 
ing to the coiu'se of the common law. Pause for a moment and reflect upon the 
conditions luider which this Constitution was prepared and adopted. Its framers 
in perpetual peril of their lives at some period during their deliberations, every 
county in the State invaded by the enemy, devoting most of their time to the pub- 
lic defense and the protection of their families, without precedent to guide them, 
save the English model, their own experience, and thoughtful study "f the prin- 
ciples of liberty. " Our Constitution," said Mr. Jay in his letter to the President 
of the Convention, "is universally approved even in New England, where few 
New York productions have credit." The verdict of posterity is unanimous and 
emphatic, that it deserves a high place among the few immortal dociunents which 
attest and determine the progress of the jieople, and the growth and defen.se of human 
liberty. Its princi})al features were incorporated into the Constituticm of the 
United States, and followed by a majority of the new Commonwealths, which 
from time to time were admitted into the Union. The men, wliose virtues we 
celebrate here to-day, did not build better than they knew. It is the crowning 
merit of their work that it fulfilled its purpose. The peril of their position, the 
time, nearly the darkest and most hopeless of the revolution, so purified their 
actions and intensified their thoughts, that reason became almost proi)heey. The 
brilliance of the promise is eipialed by the splendor of the performance. The 



36 Centennial Celebrations. 

salient principles of the old Constitution underlie the new, and every present 
effort to abiiudon other experiments and restore the aneient forms, is the best tribute 
posterity can pay to the mar\elous wisdom of tlie members of our first State Con- 
vention. The Constitution of 1777 remained in force for over forty years, and 
then, with some minor modifications, the extension of sufirage, and the concentra- 
tion of more power in the Governor, it continued substantially unchanged until 
184G. The public improvements of the State, its growth in population and local 
necessities demanded some amendments, and to provide for the public debt and 
limit the debt contracting power and to enlarge the Judiciary, the Convention of 
1846 was called together. While preserving many of the essential features of the 
old Constitution, this Convention made changes which radically altered our 
scheme of State administration. The Governor was stripped of nearly all power, 
the authority of the Legislature was restricted, and appointments to office, and 
local administration given directly to the people. The whole civil service, which 
for seventy years had been appointed by the Council of Appointment and the 
Governor and Senate, was reduced to elective offices. The judiciary, which had 
been selected by the Executive, and held its place diu'ing good behavior, was 
submitted to popular nomination and election, and very short terras of service. 
The whole instrument is a protest against the concentration of power in any 
branch of the government, and a demand for its surrender at the shortest possible 
intei'vals by the Executive, the legislative and the judicial officers, back again to 
the people. It cut up and subdivided for the election of the Legislatirre, the 
large districts, witli their guarantee of larger men for representatives, and made 
statesmanship difficult m proportion as it multiplied the opportunities and increased 
the influence of the local politician. It so widely distributed official authority 
and responsibility that each soldier of a vast army of placemen was accountable 
only to the hazards of a re-election at the end of a brief term, and the Governor 
was the head of an administration beyond the reach of appointment, removal or 
control by him. The wisdom of the revolution, especially in the judiciary, has 
never ceased to be doubted, and within the past live 3'ears, by duly adopted 
amendments, more permanency and dignity have been given to our higher and 
appellate courts, by re-organizing them upon a more harmonious basis, with more 
symmetry and concentration and longer terms of service. Tlie tendency of 
recent Constitutional reform has been to old methods in respect to the Executive, 
both in regard to his length of service and general powers, and hajipily to drive 
from the Legislature special legislation for the benefit of individuals, corporations 
or localities, and compel the enactment of such general laws as will bear equally 
in both grant and limitation upon all, giving to none the exclusive benefits and 
francliises of the State. But the methods provided by the Constitution of 1846 
to preserve the credit of New York, to reform and simplify the practice and 
codify the laws, are worthy of all praise, and liave been adopted by a large num- 
ber of the other States. Let us hope that very soon our fundamental law may be 
still further amended to stop the increase of local and miuiicipal del)t, the source 
and fountain of extravagance, peculation and fraud, and the greatest curse of our 
time. 

This brief review of our constitutional history leads naturally to an inquiry as 
to what practical results have been obtained by these principles and plans of gov- 
ernment. The first election for State officers and members of the Legislature was 
held in June, 1777, in all the counties not in possession of the enemy, by the offi- 
cers appointed by tlie convention. A majority of the council of safety sought to 



•Kingston. 37 

control the niattfr hy noininatiiig- Pliilii) Scluiykr for Governor, and George 
Clinton for Lieutenant-Governor. As .Jay said, in proclaiming these nomina- 
tions: "Our Constitution is universally approved and does honor to our State. 
Let us not lose our credit in committing the government of it to men inadequate 
to the task. These gentlemen are respectable aljroad. Their itttachment to the 
cause is confessed and their abilities unciuestiouablc. Let us endeavor to be as 
unanimous as possible." 

Notwithstanding this powerful nomination, forty-one candidates ran, 13,179 
votes were cast, and General George Clinton was elected both Governor and 
Lieutenant-Governor. He resigned the latter office, and General Pierre Van 
Cortlandt, as President of the Senate, became Lieutenant-Governor. The 
newly-elected Governor was cast in the mould of the sternest and most inflexi- 
ble patriotism. The highest office in the gift of the peoi)le had come to him 
unsolicited, but he liesitated long before accepting it. Regardless of personal 
sacrifice or ambition, he wanted first clearly to see whether his duty to the cause 
could be best performed in the field or the executive chair. The council of safety, 
restive under their great responsibilities, demanded that he immediately leave his 
command and assume tlie helm of State. 

Washington and Putnam advised his acceptance, and among the expressions 
of opinion from all quarters, the Consistory of the Dutch Reformed Church, at 
Kingston, addressed him a most earnest appeal and congratulation. "From the 
beginning of the present war," they .said, "the ConsLstory and people of Kings- 
ton have uniformly been attached to the cause of America, and justify, upon the 
soundest principles of religion and morality, the glorious revolution of a free and 
oppressed country. Take then, with the acclamation and fullest confidence of 
the public — take, sir, the government into your hands, and let the unsoHcited 
voice of the whole State prevail upon you to enter upon this arduous task. The 
Consistory esteem themselves especially liappy in having cause to believe that reli- 
gious liberty, without which all other i)rivileges are not worth enjoying, will be 
strenuously supported by your Excellency." 

He yielded his own judgment to the universal anxiety, and the 30th of July, 
1777, was fixed for the inauguration. And so, one hundred years ago to-day, 
upon this spot, the council of safety surrendered its power.s. General George 
Clinton was inaugurated Governor, and the State of New York, under a Consti- 
tution and duly organized government, began its history. He came from the very 
presence of the enemy to assume the robes of office, to return to his post when 
the ceremony was over, and the proclamation which made him Governor, General 
and Commander of the Militia and .Vdmiral of the Navy of the State, was the 
first State paper bearing the startling attest " God save the People." Forts Clin- 
ton and Montgomery were attacked in the Highlands, Herkimer was battling in 
the "Valley of the Mohawk, Burgoyne was marching from the north, and it was 
months before he could summon from tlie field and gather in council the first Leg- 
islature. 

New York had but two hundred tlKuisand people; was without manufactories 
or internal ini])rovements, and hemnud in and invaded on every side by hostile 
fleets and armies. One Imndred years have passed, and to-day in the sisterhood 
of States, she is the empire in all that constitutes a great Commonwealth. An 
industrious, intelligent and prosperous population of five millions of peojile live 
witliin her borders. In the value of her farms and farm products, and in her 
manufacturing industries, she is the first State in the Union. She sustains over 



38 Centennial Celebrations. 

one tliousand newspapers and periodicals, lias eighty millions invested in cluu'ch 

^ property, and spends twelve millions of dollars a year upon popular education. 

\ Upward of three liundred academies and colleges fit her youth for special profes- 

/ sions, and furnish opportunities for liberal learning and the highest culture, and 

stately edifices all over the State, dedicated to humane and benevolent objects, 

exhibit the permanence and extent of her organized charities. There are tliree 

hundred millions of dollars in lier savings banks. Three hundred millions in her 

insurance companies, and five hundred millions in the capital and loans of her 

State and National Banks. Six thousand miles of railroads, costing six hundred 

millions of dollars, have penetrated and developed every accessible corner of 

the State, and maintain against all rivalry and competition her commercial 

prestige. 

In 1825 a cannon was fired upon the Battery in New York city, in response to 
the reverberations of the guns from Sandy Hook, its echoes were caught and 
repeated by another shot at the Palisades, and so from Tappan Zee to the High- 
lands, and along the Catskills and the Valley of the Mohawk, and past the falls 
of the Genesee, till lost over the lake at Bufialo, the thunders of artillery 
announced, in one hour and twenty minutes, the whole length of the State, that 
the waters of the lake had been wedded to the ocean, and the Erie canal was 
comjjleted. It marked a new era in the prosperity of the State and the history 
of the nation. It sent the tide of emigration to the north-west, developing there 
great agricultural States, and added immensely to the wealth of New York. All 
honor and gratitude to the men who at that early day had the courage and fore- 
sight to plan and jjursue these great public improvements, and whose wisdom has 
been proven by a repetition of the lessons of the ages, that along the highways of 
commerce reside population, wealth, civilization and jjower. The glorj' of each 
State is the common property of the nation, and we make this day our Centennial 
exhibit. Our inquiry has shown that we need not step beyond om' own bounda- 
ries to find illustrious annals and noble examples. We are rich in battle-fields, 
decisive in results upon the freedom of the nation. Jaj', Morris and Livingston, 
Schuyler and jMontgomerj-, Clinton and Herkimer, Hamilton and Kent, are 
names which will live among the soldiers, patriots and sages of all time. In 
every crisis of its history, the virtue, courage and wisdom of the people have been 
equal to the needs of the present and the wants of the future. 

Let us welcome the second century and enter upon its duties with the stern pur- 
pose and high resolve to maintain the standard of om' fathers in the public and 
private life of the State and the honorable superiority of New York in the Fed- 
eral Union. 



ADDEESS BY EEV. JOHN C. F. HOES, D. D., 

Late Paistor of the Reformed Protestant Church of Kingston. 

Mr. President — Ladies akd Gentlemen : 

A few weeks since, I was in the State library at Albany, searching its archives 
for information relative to the earl}' settlement of Kingston, and the establishment 
of the Reformed Dutch Church in this place, when I found among the Clinton 
papers an autograph letter, which it is deemed proper and appropriate should be 
read on this Centenarv occasion. It was written bv Rev. Dr. George J. L. Doll, 



Kingston. 39 

ill l«_-liair (if (he Coiisistciry III' tlic C'liiircli ul' Kingston, of wliicli lir \v;is at tliat 
time pastor, and aildicssi'd to His Kxeollency George Clinton on the oeeasion of 
his inauguration as the first Governor of the State of New York. The Consistory 
was composed of tile following- named gentlemen : Elders — Johannes Van Keu- 
ren, Heiman Hoosa, Benjamin Ten Bioeek, E/.ekiel Hasten. Bcacum — Gerrit 
Freer, Abraham Elmendorf, Conrad Newkii-k, Tobyas Swart. Kerhmeeater or 
Church Warden — William Elting. 

Dr. Doll was the last of that venerable catalogue of divines, commencing with 
the Kev. Ilermanus Hloom in IGoii, who were thoroughly educated in the univer- 
sities of Holland and Germany, and who, as pastors, preached iu tlic Dutch lan- 
guage to the people of this place and its vicinity. His ministry commenced in 
1775, and terminated with his death in 1811. He was the father-in-law of the 
late Hon. James Vanderpoel, his granddaughter was the wife of the late John 
Van Buren, and daughter-in-law of the late ex-President Van Buren. 

The Keformed Dutch Church of which Dr. Doll was pastor for the period of 
thirty-six years was established in 1659 — that is, one hundred and eighteen years 
before the inauguration of George Clinton as the first Governor of the State of 
New York. 

The church edifice in which Dr. Doll commenced his ministry in Kingston was 
dedicated to the worship of God by the Rev. George Wilhelmus Mancius, 
November 29, 1753, N. S., and was burned on the 16th of October, 1777, when 
Kingston was taken by the British under General Vaughan. There are good 
reasons to believe tliat the British forces were at first reluctant to burn the church, 
but when they learned of the patriotism of Dr. Doll and his consistory as 
expressed in the letter I am about to read, they no longer hesitated sacrilegiously 
to apply the torch to the house of God, and also to the parsonage in which the 
patriotic Dominie lived. It is only a few weeks since that I first learned of the 
existence of any thing wliich would give a true conception of this church. And 
I take the liberty of holding up to your view the only picture in existence of 
this ancient and venerable house of the Lord, made by A. Billings, 125 years 
ago. In this church either in its original form or as it was rebuilt after having 
been burned by the British in the Revolutionary war, the people of God worshipped 
until 1833, when it was succeeded by a more modern structure, which in its turn 
was succeeded in 1852 by the present commodious and attractive edifice. But I 
will not detain you longer by giving a history of the church of Kingston, but will 
proceed to read the letter of Dr. Doll, to which these remarks are designed only 
to be introductory. 

Letter of Dk. Doll. 

To His Erccllcncii, GnoHOE Clinton, Esij., Govcrnm; General and Cummatulcr-in-Uliicf of all the 
Mililiii, and Admiral of tlic Navy of the State of New York : 

May IT Please YouiiExcELLE.s'oY — At the commencement of the New Constitution, and at the 
very hour of your inauguration, tlie Minister, Elders and Deacons of tlie Reformed Dutch Cluircii 
of Kingston, in Consistory as.semliled, beg leave to congratulate your Excellency upon the highest 
lionors the subjects of a free State can possess, and to assure you of the part they bear in the 
public baiipiness of this occasion. 

Fruni tile tieginning of the present war, the Consistory and the people of Kingston have been 
unifonnly attached to the cause of ^Njnenca. and justify upon the soundest jirinciples of religion 
and moralitj" the glorious revolution of a free and oppressed country. Convinced of the unright- 
eous design of Great Hritaiii up<in their civil and religious privileges, they choose, without hesita- 
tion, rather to sutler with a brave people for a season, than to enjoy the luxui'ies and friendship of 
a wicked and cruel nation. 



\ 



/ 



40 Centennial Celebrations. 

Witli an inexpressible pereeverance, wliich they trust the greatest adversity and persecution will 
y never change, tliey profess to your Exeelleney their interest in the Continental 'Union and loy- 

\ alty to the State ot New York. 

•i While the Constitution is preserved inviolate, and the rulers steer by that conspicuous beacon, 

the people have the fairest prospects of happiness mid success. With you they choose to launch, 
that future pilots may form a precedent from your vigilance, impartiahty and lirmness, and the 
system obtain an establishment that shall last for ages. For as nothing can be more agreeable to 
the conscious patriot than the approbation of his country, so nothing can more promote the gene- 
ral good than placing confidence in established charactei-s, and raising merit to distinguished 
power. 

Take, then, with the acclamations and fullest confidence ot the public — take, Sir, the govern- 
ment into your hands, and let the unsolicited voice of a whole State prevail upon you to enter 
upon the arduous task. 

All ranks, in placing you at their head, have pledged their lives and fortunes to support and 
defend you in this exalted station, and the Consistory oi Kingston cheerfully unite in the implicit 
stipulation, and promise you their prayere. 

As a reformation in morals is the immediate object of the Consistory of Kingston, they esteem 
themselves especiaUy happy in having cause to believe, that religious Uberty (without which all 
other privileges are not worth enjoying) will be strenuously supported by your Excellency; and 
they congratulate themselves and the State, that God has given them a Governor who under- 
stands, and therefore loves the Christian Religion, and who in his administration will prove a terror 
to evil-doei's, and an example and patrou to them that do well. 

Signed by order ot the Consistory. 

Mtgust 2, 1877. J. L. DOLL, Pmcscs. 



ADDEESS OF HOK GEORGE H. SHARPE. 

When the consolidation ot the Roman Empire seemed to be well nigh attained, 
at about the commencement of the Christian era, Cfesar Augustus instituted or 
revived the secular games. They were intended to mark the Centennial periods 
of Rome. Heralds were employed to convoke the people by a solemn summons 
in these words: Convenite ad Judos spcdandos, qiios nee sjiectacit quisqiiam, nee »pec- 
teitiirus est. They were invited to a spectacle which no one present had ever 
beheld, and which no one jjresent would ever behold again. At the special cele- 
bration spoken of Horace prepared the hymn, which was sung by a chorus of 
youths and maidens. We can well believe that at these Centennial epochs the 
most popular orators were called to celebrate in fitting terms the great deeds of 
their ancestors. AYhile the glories of Rome would form the general theme, a 
particular recital would be rendered to commemorate the successes of the himdred 
years just past. And when such an ejioch had been marked by some of the 
mightiest achievements of Rome, care would be taken that a minute narrative 
should be made of the incidents and actors who figured in the triumphs. It has 
been therefore thought proper that, in addition to the broader discourse to which 
you have been called to listen, I should endeavor to make a picture to you of the 
scene and actors when the independent government of this great Commonwealth 
was first set in motion. 

Kingston as connected witli the Convention, ■will, then, be my brief topic. 

The revolutionary government of this State was carried on by a Provincial 
Congress, issuing out of a Convention, and during its recesses its- powers were 
confided to a Committee or Council of Safety. The first, second and third Pro- 
vincial Congresses met in New York. The exigencies of war required the fourth 
to meet at White Plains, in Westchester County, where the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was read and unanimously agreed to on the 10th of July, 1776. On 
the 39th of the same month the Provincial Convention adjourned to Harlem, 



Kingston. 41 

where it continued for thirty days, when it again adjourned to Fishkill. The 
accominddations there were insuHieient. The Episcopal church had been cliosen 
lor the sessions of the Convention, but being very offensive with the dung of 
dogs and fowls, and without any benches, seats or any other conveniences what- 
ever, it was considered unfit for tlie use of the Convention, and the nu-nilxTs 
unanimously agreed to adjourn to the Dutch church in the same village. Those 
present from tliis County were Charles DeWitt and Christopher Tappen. 
Brief sessions were held until the loth of October, when the Convention again 
resigned the care of public affairs to the Committee of Public Safety, and on the 
;!lst day of January, 1777, Messrs. Duane and Robert Yates, having returned 
from Kingston, reported, in substance, that they had conferred with the Com- 
mittee in Ulster County, and iind that if 'the Convention should move to that 
place, fifty members can obtain good accommodations; that the price will be 
twenty shillings per week, and that the Court-house, or a large room iu the said 
building, would be convenient for tlie Convention to meet in. 

This village had been already subjected to extraordinary burdens ; its jail was 
made the custodian of a large number of State prisoners, and as it was situated 
upon tlie road principally used by troops passing to and from the northern and 
southern armies, the town committee was frequently obliged to make reclamations 
for extraordinary acts committed by the troops. 

On the 1st of February the Committee of Safety authorized the Committee of 
Kingston to appoint a guard for the safe custody of the State prisoners, six of the 
said guard to watch every night; and an allowance of two shillings and six pence 
was made to each member for every night on duty ; and the town committee was 
authorized to provide candles and fire-wood for the guard, to be reimbursed out 
of the treasury of the State. 

On the 11th of February Mr. Gansevoort, of Albany, moved that the Con- 
vention adjourn, to meet at Kingston on the 19th. Mr. Wisner, of Orange, 
endeavored to h.ave Goshen chosen instead of Kingston, and moved an amend- 
ment to that effect. Debate arose thereon, and the Journal informs us that when 
the question was put on the amendment it was carried in the negative. Mr. 
Duane, of New York, then introduced a preamble reciting the great and momentous 
affairs under the consideration of the Convention, and the necessity of the advice 
and assistance of all its members, and an order was made that all the members of 
the Convention should be peremptorily required to give their attendance at Kings- 
ton, and letters were written to the committees of the respective counties, inclos- 
ing copies of the above resolution, and informing them that it is the intention of 
the House as soon as they meet in Kingston to proceed to the business of forming 
a plan of government. 

On the inth of February, 1777, the Committee of Safety assembled at Kingston, 
there being present only Col. Pierre Van Cortlandt, acting President ; Messrs. 
Philip Livingston and Van Zandt, of New York; Mr. Tappen, of Ulster; Mr. 
Taylor, of Albany, and Mr. Newkirk, of Tryon, the latter county comprising 
nearly all that part of tlie State now westerly of Schenectady. No business was 
done on this first day, except the consideration of a letter from General George 
Clinton, dated at New Windsor on the 14th instant, informing the committee 
that pursuant to the resolve of the Convention he had raised five hundred men 
in the counties of Orange and Ulster. 

The Committee of Safety continued its sessions from day to day, with acces- 
C 



42 Ckntennial CelebratioJ^s. 

sions 1)1' nu'inbcrs, psjssing iipcm tlic most important business relating to this prov- 
ince, a large ])art of which, ineliuling the city of New York, was in the posses- 
sion of the enemy, the northern and centre portions being threatened by the great 
invasion of Bnrgoyne. On tlie lith of March the committee yielded its powers 
to the Convention, of which Brigailier-Gcncral Ten Broeck, a member from 
Albany, was President. 

Kingston w-as at this time the third jilace in size, wealth and imioortauce in the 
State. I find' a census made in 1782, when it is probable that the number of 
inhabitants did not greatly diifer from what it was at the date we are considering. 
The jiopnlation of Kingston was then computed at 2,C53, and the total population 
of the county at 10,902. 

Within a few days past, in the company of General D. T. Van Bueen, I made 
an examination of the old stone dwellings still standing, wliich, in all probability, 
existed essentially in their present condition in 1777. These ancient relies are 
passmg away, many of the best specimens having been removed within late years. 
There are, however, about forty-eight stone houses presenting substantially the 
same appearance which they did to the distinguished men who for long mouths 
resided here, directing the energies of this province against the niighty armies of 
Great Britain, and giving the principle of life to the Constitution of an independ- 
ent State. 

In 1777 the greater part of the village still lay within the confiues of the pali- 
saded inelosure which had formed the fortified post of the Esopus from the year 
1G58. This area, comprising about twenty-live acres, lay within the boundaries 
of North Front, East Front, Green and Main streets. The houses were built of 
blue limestone, the largest proportion of them being only one story high, with an 
attic ; and as the interior walls were made by plastering immediately upon the 
stone, very little woodwork was found inside of them. I call attention to this 
fact because it is frequently stated in various writings, jjermanent and fleeting, 
that but one house is standing to-day in Kingston in the likeness it exhibited 
during the revolutionary war. At the time the village was tired by Vaughn's 
troops, in October, 1777, the inhabitants had ample warning of the disaster; and 
although, by reason of the absence of the greater part of the male population at 
Saratoga or with the Southern army, they were unable to resist the invader, a 
great part of their household goods and movable effects was sent to Hurley or 
Marbletown. The inflammable material, therefore, remaining within these stone 
walls was small in amount, and where the house was not large the fire was not 
sufliciently strong to crack the walls. The renewal, therefore, of the doors, shut- 
ters and roofs would restore the dwelling to its former external ajipearance, and 
such restoration was likely to be made by the mechanics of that day after the old 
models. 

The village was mainly within the ancient precincts, but had overflowed some- 
what toward Hurley, and more extensively over the plains on the south. Some of 
the larger houses, like Molly Elmendorf's, which stood between the ]>resent 
site of the Kingston Bank and 3Ir. Howard Chipp's, and the Vanderlyu man- 
sion, which occupied the space across Wall street between the present sites of the 
Ulster Comity and State of New York Banks, received so much injury from the 
intensity of the fire, on account of their size, that they were suffered to fall into 
ruin. .-Vud I have been told by those now living that they played as children 
within the walls and under the arches of these ruins, seeming to them of vast 
size, and constraining sentiments of awe and veneration. Others of the larger 



Kingston. 43 

houses were only imrtially nhiiilt, llie new courses of stone being laid in the same 
position as tlie old ones. Of these, Christopher Tappen's mansion, hite on the 
corner of AVall and North Front; the large Tappen house, still occupying the tri- 
angle on Green street; tlie old Bruyn mansion, with its handsome hipped roof, on 
the corner of North Front and Crown; Bogardus' tavern, afterward called the 
Constitution House, standing where William F. Romek's residence now is, and 
Ihc old Ilnsbrouck liomestead, lately on East Front street at the easterly termina- 
tion of 3Iain, are fair specimens, and will readily be recalled by most of those who 
hear me. Bogardus' tavern, with the Elmendorf house diagonally opposite, now 
owned by General V.\>; Burex, were the two principal hotels, and in them the 
committees who prcjiared the Constitution undoubtedly met. The Convention, 
however, sat in the Court House, a substantial building of blue limestone, occu- 
pying about the same superficies of ground as the present noble building, and 
- overlooking the fine inclosure and old burying ground of the Dutch church. 

The Convention having organized on the 6th of March, we learn from its jour- 
nal that already on the l'2th the committee for preparing and reporting a form or 
plan of government brought in their report, which was read by !Mr. Duane, of 
New York, in his place. 

On the 18th of JIarch, Mr. Governeur Morris, of "Westchester, moved, and it 
was seconded, that the members be permitted to smoke in the Convention Cham- 
ber, to prevent bad effects from the disagreeable effluvia arising from the jail 
below. A debate arose thereon, and, the question being put, the House divided 
as follows: For the affirmative, Westchester, four votes; Albany, six votes ; Ulster, 
four votes — -total, fourteen. For the negative, Tryon, three votes; New York, 
eight votes — total, eleven. The counties of Dutchess and Orange were divided. 
This division was immediately followed by a motion of 3Ir. .Jay, which was passed, 
directing that Captain Piatt, Mr. Cuyler and Mr. Duane, be appointed a com- 
mittee to devise ways and means for clearing the jail below and moving the pris- 
oners. 

Tlie Convention proceeded from day to day, transacting its military business 
and discussing the several sections of the new Constitution; and on the 20th of 
April, the whole plan of government was read through, the last division being 
taken upon the two methods of voting at the popular elections — by ballot or 
viva voce. On the evening of the same day, irhkh mas Sunday , the Constitution 
or plan of government of this State, as amended, was read throughout, and, the 
general question being put thereon, it was agreed to by every member present, 
except Col. Peter R. Li\'ingston, who desired that his dissent thereto be entered 
on the minutes. 

The draft of this Constitution was in the handwriting of John Jay, and, con- 
taining a full recital of the Declaration of Independence, is equal, in the dignity 
of its language and in the scope of its provisions, to any similar instrument pre- 
pared by the hand of man. The proceedings of the day were closed by the 
appointment of Mr. Robert R. Livingston, Gen. Scott, Jlr. Morris, Mr. Abra- 
ham Yates, Mr. Jay and ilr. Hobart a committee to report a plan for establish- 
ing the government agreed to by this Convention; and it was ordered that one of 
the Secretaries should proceed to Fishkill, where Mr. John Holt, the editor of 
the New York Journal, and the Stat&))rinter, was then established. The Secre- 
tary was authorized to direct the printing of three thousand copies of the Consti- 
tution, and to give gratuities to the printer and his workmen, at his discretion, 
in order to obtain dispatch, and the printer was ordered to lay aside all other 



44 Centennial Celebrations. 

business. Thu procuediugs of the commitU'C concliulcd witli tlic following ;iction 
bj' the Convention: 

HraoJi'oT, That tho Constitution of this State bo publislicd at tlie Court-house, at eleven of 
the dock, on next Tuesday nioininf;. 

Ordered, That tlie Cliairnian of tlie Committee oT Kingston be furnished witli a i^opy of the 
above resolution, and that he be requested to notify the inhabitants of Kingston thereof 

On the following Tuesday, at the hour named, the bells of the Dutch church, 
the Court-house and of Kingston Academy, called the inhabitants to the front of 
the latter building, where, surrounded by the members of the Convention, the 
Secretary of that body, standing upon a barrel, read the Constitution to the 
people. 

The little capital of the State began to increase in importance, and on the fol- 
lowing Saturday, April 3t)tli, the Convention ordered that the Treasurer of this 
State advance to John Dumont, Esq., Chairman of the Committee of Kingston, 
tlie sum of one hundred pounds, to defray the expense of the night watch over 
the State prisoners and the public records. Meantime some vessels belonging to 
the Continental Congress, which had taken refuge up the Hudson River, and by 
reason of the enemy's strong naval force at New York were unable to put to sea, 
had been placed at the disposition of this Colony for the purpose of receiving 
State prisoners. These vessels lay at TwaaU'skill, now Wilbur, one of them being 
named the Lady Washington ; and on the 28th of April the Convention ordered 
that two hundred men be raised to protect the Continental ships and the public 
records and treasury of this State against the designs of disajtected people, as 
well as to guard the different passes and roads frequented by such persons for the 
purjiose of conveying intelligence and going over to the enemy. This force was 
organized into three companies of able-bodied men, well armed and accoutred 
each with a good musket or fusee, a sword or tomahawk, a powder horn and 
bullet pouch or cartouch pouch, and they were officered respectively by Captains 
Evart Bogardus, Isaac Belknap and Frederick Schoonmaker. 

Much time of the Convention was subsequently occupied by the trial of a num- 
ber of Tories, with which the northern part of our County abounded. The enemy 
sought to corrupt the fanners of the moiuitain towns from theu- allegiance to the 
State by an ofier of one hundred acres for heads of families, and fifty for children, 
to be partitioned out of such lands as should be confiscated from the patriots. A 
considerable number, whose trials are set forth at length upon the Journal of the 
Convention, were found guilty and ordered to be hanged ; but it would seem that 
the gates of mercy were easily opened, as from one cause and another all were 
reprieved, with the exception of two. Jacobus Roosa and Jacob Jliddngh ; where- 
ui)on it was ordered that Egbert Dumond, Esq., High Sheriff, have permission to 
go aboard all the vessels at the landing, at his pleasure, or to send any person on 
board who shall be the bearer of a copy of this order, to endeavor to obtain an 
executioner. It is, therefore, to be presumed that the two traitors who were 
hanged at this time perished at the hands of one of their royalist sympathizers. 

On the 0th of ]May it was voted that Levi Pawling be first Judge of Ulster, 
and that Dirck Wyncoop be one other Judge for the same County ; and it is 
interesting to state that Judge Wyncoop's residence is still standing, on Green 
street, presenting, in all probaliility, the same appearance that it did to our revo- 
lutionary fathers, and is the only house existing in this County, with the exception 
of the Lonnsbery mansion at Stone Ridge, where we can trace the footsteps of 
Washington. 



Kingston. 45 

Georgo Clinton, having in the mcaiUinir' bfcn appointed a Brigadier-Genenil 
in the Continental Army, sent to the Convention his resignation of his commis- 
sion, of like rank, in the militia of Ulster and Orange, and on the 13th of May, 
having declined to accept the resignation, the Provincial Convention adjourned, 
turning over the business of the State to a Council of Safety, to hold power until 
the election and ipialiflcation of the Governor and Legislature. I am at a loss to 
know whether the Council of Safety continued its sitting in the Court-house or 
met in some smaller place ; but am inclined to believe, in the absence of evidence, 
that the Council remained in session in the former building. 

At the afternoon meeting of the Council the record tells us that Egbert Ben- 
son, Esq., Attorney-General of this State, attended the Committee of Safety, and 
in council took and subscribed on the roll the oath of allegiance to this State and 
an oath of office. 

The election having been held on the nth of .July, the Council, acting as a 
board of canvassers, declared the result as regards the offices of Governor, Lieu- 
tenant-Governor and Senators for the three Districts, George Clinton being 
found elected to both of the first mentioned offices. A letter was prepared, 
advising him of the result, and requesting him to make such arrangement of his 
affairs as to come with all convenient speed to Kingston to take the oath of the 
office which he should think proper to accept. On the 14th, his letter of the 11th, 
dated at Fort Montgomery, was received, accepting the office of Governor and 
resigning that of Lieutenant-Governor. 

On the IStli it was ordered that Lieutenant-Colonels Elmendorf and Iloorn- 
beck do by drafts out of the regiments of militia under their commands furnish a 
Captain and detail to guard the prisoners confined in Kingston jail and on board 
the fleet prison, and that said guards be relieved weekly by similar drafts from 
the same regiments until the companies of guards which this board is endeavor- 
ing to raise can be completed. 

On the 21st the Council, premising by a preamble that the late Convention had 
constituted the Council witli full powers until a meeting of the Legislature, and 
had ordained that the executive powers of the State should be vested in the Gov- 
ernor as soon as he should he chosen and admitted to office, and further, that the 
Council do not think themselves justified in holding and exercising any powers 
vested in them longer than is absolutely necessary, resolved, "that Brigadier-Gen- 
"eral George Clinton be, and he hereby is, most earnestly requested to appear 
"before this Council, to take the oath and enter upon the discharge of the impor- 
" taut duties of his said office of Governor of this State." 

On the 30th of July, which was Wednesday, the Council prepared a letter to 
his Excellency, General Washington, wherein they convey to him some military 
information, and conclude by saying: "Governor Clinton will be qualilied this 
' ' date, so that your Excellency's future requisitions from this State will be 
"dire<!ted tohim." And later, in the Journal of the same day, the following 
entry appears: "His Excellency, George Clinton, duly elected Governor of 
"this State, appeared in Council of Saf<'ty and took the oath of allegiance to the 
"State, and also the oath of office as Governor, as prescribed by the ordinance 
"of the Convention of the representatives of the said State, made and passed the 
"8th day of May last, for organizing and establishing the government agreed 
"to by the said Convention. The said oaths were administered by the Prosi- 
" dent in Council, and are subscrilied on the roll by the Governor in Council." 
A proclamation was thereui)on prepared for declaring the Governor, and an order 



40 Centennial Celebrations. 

was made that Mr. John Holt print five hundred copies of the proclamation. It 
was further ordered that the said proclamation be made and published by the 
Slierilf of Ulster County, at or near the Court-liouse in Kingston, at 6 o'clock this 
afternoon. 

" Kesolved and ordered, that Captain Evart Bogardus and Captain John 
"Elmendorf do cause the companies of militia under their respective commands 
"to appear at the Court-house in Kingston, at G o'clock this afternoon, properly 
"armed and accoutered, at which time and place his Excellency, George Clinton, 
" will be proclaimed Governor of this State." 

With these notes of preparation, on the evening of this day a hundred years 
ago, the simple but great ceremonial took place. The principal actor in the 
scene, of course, was George Clinton. The people of this County, with all the 
other people of New York, owe a great debt of gratitude to many distinguished 
men of the Revolutionary era. Their names are emblazoned in the annals of the 
State and nation, and will live in all future time. But Clinton was a son of this 
county. Born in our midst, educated upon our soil and ever claiming it as his 
home, he was the friend and elder brother of our fathers — cast in the most heroic 
mould, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. 
His father was a man of culture, residing near Coldenham, in that part of the 
County which is now embraced within the limits of Orange, and his personal 
supervision over the education of his son was aided by the scholarly attainments 
and discipline of a Scotch minister. The father, and an elder brother of George, 
James Clinton, gave early proof of military ability. In the old French war 
George enlisted in a privateering expedition, and on his return from it he accom- 
panied his brother James, as a Lieutenant, in the expedition against Fort Fron- 
tenac, Canada. On his return he studied law at the office of the historian Wil- 
liam Smith, one of the most conspicuous advocates at the New York bar, who 
afterward became Chief -Justice of Canada. His abilities and character were 
soon recognized, and beginning with 17.59, he held successively the offices of 
Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, Clerk of the Court of Sessions, and Sm-ro- 
gate in this County. In 1768 he was a member of the House of Assembly, under 
the old colonial government, and was acknowledged as one of the leaders in 
debate in the resistance which was interposed by the colonial Legislature to the 
encroachments of the crown. In all the struggles which followed, equal in con- 
stancy and dignity to those of any other province, George Clinton, Philip 
Schuyler and Nathaniel Woodhull, of Long Island, acted the most distin- 
guished parts. 

In 17()9 he again entered the General Assembly, and continued a member until 
the adjournment in 177.5, which proved its final dissolution. In the same year he 
was a member of the first Provincial Convention of this province, which 
assembled on the 20th of April, and two years afterward he was elected one of 
the delegates to the Continental Congress. On the 19th of December succeeding 
he was apjiointed Brigadier-General of the militia of Ulster and Orange, and in 
June, 1770, we find him again in the Continental Congress. In the next month 
he was chosen a deputy to the fourth Provincial Congress, which, on the i)th, 
became the Convention of the representatives of the State of New York ; and in 
August of the same year he was placed in command of all the levies for the 
defense of the Hudson River. In March, 1777, he was appointed by Congress a 
Brigadier-General in the line, with command of the forces in the Highlands, and 
in May he received the thanks of the New York Convention for his services in 



Kingston. 47 

Congress and to tlie Colony and State. As we have seen, on the 0th of July, 
1777, he was elected Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, aeeejiting the former 
office, and on October 4tli he left the Legislature to take command of Fort 
Montgomery, threatened by the British, which, under his command, was valiantly 
defended, iigainst a greatly superior force of the enemy, until night came, when 
the garrison forced its way through and escaped. Ilis great military object at 
this time was to prevent a union of the British forces at New York and those 
under Bui'goyne, moving soutli from Ticonderoga. How well he performed this 
duty may be gathered from a letter written by Burgoyne to the British Minister, 
Lord George Germain, on the very day tliat Clinton was inaugurated Governor, 
in which Biu'goyne says : "I have .spared no joains to open a correspondence with 
Sir William Howe. I have employed the most enterprising characters, and 
offered very promising rewards; but of ten messengers sent at different times, 
and by different routes, not one has returned to me, and I am in total ignorance 
of the .situation or intentions of that General." 

In a letter to Sir Guy Carleton, General Burgojme says: " I have no news of 
Sir William Howe. I have only to add, in regard to my future progress, that I 
shall be oliliged to wait some days for the an-ival of provisions and battcau.x, by 
which time I think it probable the enemy will have fallen back to Saratoga, 
where I mean to attack them if they stand." 

They did stand at Saratoga, and if Burgoyne could obtain no information con- 
cerning Sir William Howe, he received full advices regarding the Continental 
army imder Gates. 

The crowning success of this campaign, which put the cause of American Inde- 
pendence beyond doubt, both here and abroad, was partly due, in the great 
sweep of the military operations, to the magnificent ability with which Governor 
Clinton performed his part of the work. In October, 1780, Clinton led, in 
person, the militia to repel the invasion of the Mohawk and Schoharie vallej's by 
Sir John Johnston and Brandt, whom he defeated and drove out of the State. 
But why should I recount his services, or the numerous marks of approbation ho 
received for them from his fellow-countrymen? 

In 1783 he was re-elected Governor, and again in '86, in '89, '92 and 1801; and 
in 1805 he was elected Vice-President of the United States, followed by a re- 
election to the same oflice in 1808, and died in Washington on the 20th of April, 
1812, being the anniversary of the adoption of the New York Constitution, while 
administering the second office in the gift of the country, and at the age of seventy- 
three years. 

Gen. Clinton was prepossessing in appearance, not tall, but massive in stature. 
His demeanor was dignitied, and his strongly marked face, indicative of coin-age, 
decision and energy, would be taken as a type of the best specimens of o\w Ulster 
County fanners, broadened by education and participation in important affairs. 
His portrait in the New York Historical Society represents a bronzed and manly 
, jierson, carefully dressed in the costume of the day, wth short breeches and 
buckles, and with ruffles in the bosom and at the cuffs. At the time of his inaugu- 
ration he was in the thirty-eighth year of his age. 

Toward evening of the 30th of July, 1777, the bells of the Dutch church, the 
Court-house and Kingston Academy were heard ringing out as if for a joyous 
festival. The people, to whom notice had also been given by the Rev. Tilt. Doll 
on the Sunday preceding, wended their way toward the Court-house. On either 
side of its door, and facing inwards, were ranged the companies of Cap/ains 



48 Centennial Celebrations. 

Bogurdus and Elmcndorf. The dark mass of the Couvt-liousc formed the back- 
ground of the scene, while across the street was the great pile of the Dutch 
church, with its separate belfry tower up-rearing far above it. On the front and 
right stretched away the mounds marking the graves of the fathers of the inhabit- 
ants who were present, and on the left the view was bounded by the Vanderlyn 
mansion. The Council oi. Safety, having met and organized in tlie court-room, 
descended and took their places on the steps of the Court-house and at the head 
of the square formed by the military companies. There was the accomplished 
Pierre Van Cortlandt, President of the Council, who became Lieutenant-Governor 
under Clinton, and subsequentlj' presided in the Senate of this State with recog- 
nized ability and dignity. There was Christopher Tappen, whose sister George 
Clinton had married, who was for long years the leading lay officer of the venerable 
church of Kingston, and who subsequently sat in the Assembly for three success- 
ive years, and was a Senator from the middle district in 1797. There was 
Zephaniah Piatt, afterward first Judge of the County of Dutchess and a State 
Senator, who founded the town of Plattsburg in 1785, and died there in 1807. 
There, too, was that noble son of Ulster, who subscribed himself Charles Dewitt 
of Greenkill, and who, jjerhaps, after Clinton, was the most prominent man from 
this County during the whole revolutionary period. As a member of the last 
Legislature which sat under the roj'al authority he was one of the nine resolute 
and patriotic men who voted to approve the proceedings of the Continental Con- 
gress then sitting in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Committee to prepare 
a draft of the Constitution, and after the treaty of peace he was chosen a dele- 
gate to the Continental Congress. There, too, was the Christian gentleman, Gil- 
bert Livingston, representing the County of Dutchess, who set one of the earliest 
examples of practical philanthropy by the liberation of all his slaves. And there 
were Major Peter Van Zandt and Thomas Tredwell, the latter a graduate of 
Princeton College, who lield successively nearly all the offices in the County of 
Suffolk, and was reckoned among those of his day who liad the best pretensions 
to scholarship and classical taste. 

There, too, were Robert Harper and Matthew Cantine, and next to them Gen. 
John Morin Scott, who graduated at Yale in 1746, was present with his brigade 
in the battle of Long Island, and subsequently became Secretary of State of New 
York. Nor must I pass without special mention the j'oungest member of the 
Committee of Safety, for the well-bred figure standing on the left of the little 
semi-circle surrounding Clinton is that of Robert R. Livingston, who became the 
first Chancellor of the Statu of New York, and in this official capacity adminis- 
tered the oath of office to "Washington on his inauguration as first President of 
the United States. In 1781 Livingston was made Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs, and in 1801, resigning the Chancellorship, he was appointed Minister Pleni- 
jiotentiary to France, wliere he successfully negotiated the treaty for the cession of 
Louisiana. It is said of liim that as an orator and patriot he was so distinguished 
a ])erson that Franklin in his admiration termed him the Cicero of America. 

By the provisions of an act of Congress, each State in the Union is entitled to 
a place in the Capitol at "Washington for the statues of two of its most eminent 
citizens. The selections have been made, the verdict of posterity has confirmed 
the judgment of our fathers, and the citizens of New York, whose steps are 
hereafter guided to the dome of the Capitol, will, in that great companionship of 
silent heroes, gaze with satisfaction upon the marble features of George Clinton 
and Robert R. Livingston. 



Kingston. 49 

Of the old citizens of this town, who, we find, were not absent witli tlie army 
of Washington, or at Saratoga, or in the Highlands, we can well imagine tlie 
presence of those who bore familiar names. There was the courteous and hos- 
pitable Huguenot, Colonel Abraham Ilasbrouck, who had just relinquished the 
command of one of our county regiments. There were Nicholas and Benjamin 
Bogardus, at the head of the farmers who came from the direction of Hurley. 
There was Johannis Sleight, Chairman of the Committee of Kingston, and 
Abraham HoSman, afterward one of the Judges of the Common Pleas. There 
was Joseph Gasherie, who became the first Surrogate of the County, and Abraham 
B. Bancker, for many years the careful and respected Clerk of the Senate. 

Colonel Jacobus S. Bruyn was absent with the troops at Fort Montgomery, but 
the ladies of his family could be distinguished in the group to the left, near the 
Vanderlyn mansion. There was old Jeremiah Dubois at the head of the residents 
of Twaalfskill, and Captain Egbert Schoonmaker, of Coxsing in Marbletown, 
commanding the guard over the prisoners in the fleet. There, too, were Abraham 
Delamater and Jacob Trcmper; Peter Vanderlyn and Abraham Van Keuren; 
Peter Dimioud and Peter Jansen ; Tobias Van Bm-en and Peter Roggen ; Peter 
Marius Groan, Jacob ilarius Groen and Henry Schoonmaker; Dr. Luke Kierstedt 
and Joshua Dubois. 

These well-known citizens came with their families and colored servants; and 
with them came the jNIastens, Van Steenburghs, Burhanses, Ten Broecks, Beck- 
mans, Swarts, Newkirks, Snyders, Houghtailings, Persens, Eltinges, Elmendorfs 
and Vosburgs, and many others whose names are familiar in our early records. 
And the saucy beauty of the wife of Captain Thomas Van Gaasbeck could be 
easily distinguished as she came with the matrons and maidens from East Front 
street. John Vanderlyn, the painter, was still an infant, and if present he must 
have been carried in the arms of one of his family to witness a ceremonial, some 
of the actors in which he afterward reproduced on canvas — the likeness of 
Chancellor Livingston, in the possession of the Xew York Historical Society, 
being a specimen of his master hand. 

AVhen silence had been commanded by a flourish of the drums of the military 
companies, Egbert Dumond, the Sheriff of the County, mounted a temporary 
elevation, and read to the people as follows: 

A PROCLAMATION. 

In Council of Safety for the I 

St.ite of New York, July 30, ITTT. | 

Whereas, His Excellencj', Oeorge Clinton, Esq., has been duly elected Governor o£ the State of 
New York, and hath this day qualified himself for the execution of his office, by taking in the 
Council the oaths required by the Constitution of this State, to enable liini to exercise his said 
office; this Council doth, therefore, hereby, in the name and by the authority of the good people 
of this State, proclaim and declare the said George Clinton, Esq., Governor, General and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of all the Jlilitia, and Admiral of the Navy of this State, to whom the good people 
of this State are to pay all due obedience, according to the laws and Constitution thereof. 
By order of the Council of Safety : 

PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT, President. 

And then Sheriff Dumond added, in a loud voice, "God save the people." 
The authority of the King of Great Britain was paramount in the city of Kew 
York and in the whole lower part of the State. The legions of Burgoyne had 
met with an uninterrupted course of successes, and it did not seem that an ade- 
quate force could be raised to prevent the accomplishment of their object — to 
occupy a lino which should divide all the Eastern States from New Jersey and 
7 



50 Centennial Celebrations. 

those south of it. Besides, Col. St. Leger, with a large body of regulars and 
Indians, was pressing upon our western border and investing Fort Schuyler at the 
head of the Mohawk. Tliere was not, in fact, during this summer, a county in 
this State, as it then existed, which escaped a visit from the armies of the enemy. 
In the midst of tliis portentous crisis George Clinton was inaugui-ated Governor. 
In view of the subsequent events and catastrophe of the Kevolutionary war, we 
may well say : ' ' For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, 
since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of 
heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing 
is, or hatli been heard like it ? 

" Or luith God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of anotlicr 
nation, by temptations, bj' signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty 
hand, and by a stretclied out arm, and by great terrors." 

In the middle watches of this summer night, to the imaginative ear the sound 
of strange footsteps will be borne. If you listen carefully you will hear the meas- 
ured step of Peter Stuyvesant, as he comes marching up from Rondout with fifty 
soldiers to save the Esoijus. The stately tread of John Jay and the fathers will 
be discerned as they seek to revisit the scenes of their patriotic endeavor; but if 
you descry their forms the most resolute and authoritative figure of them all will 
be that of George Clinton, of Ulster, seven times Governor of the Empu'e State 
and twice Vice-President of the Union, 



At the conclusion of Gen. Shaepe's Address, letters of regret were 

S 



read from numerous distinguished people. The following was from 
Ex-Gov. HoEATio Seymour : 



To the Hon. T. B. Westbrook, CHiairman, etc.: 

DearSib — I am glad to learn that the formation of our State Government at Kingston one 
hundred years ago is to be commemorated. It concerns the honor and interests Of New 
York that this sliould be dune. No people can rise to a high degree of virtue or patriotism who 
do not know about nor care for the achievements of their fathers. The man who learns the 
history of the Constitution of this State makes no small advance in knowledge of jurispru- 
dence, of political events and of patriotic action. The Revolution was not merely a martial 
struggle. Graver doubts and (ears than those which grew out of the military power of Great 
Britain disturljed the minds of leading men when they resolved to sever the ties which 
bound them to that nation. 

They had been trained in the faith that its form of government was themost perfect devised 
by the wisdom of man, their devotion to its dignity and success had been made deep and 
strong during the hundred years of struggle with France for the control of this continent. 
For more than a century the British flag was the standard under which they had fought 
against the invasit)ns of disciplined armies, or the cruel ravages of savage tribes. The 
wrongs which drove our fathers to resistance caused less fear of war than of the untried poli- 
tical systems which independence would force them to adopt. 

New Y'ohk's Constitution. 
When New York framed its Constitution, amid the confusion of civil war, it gave proof that 
the men of the State were thoroughly versed in principles of civil liberty and good govern- 
ment. It was hailed throughout the country as a triumph for the cause of independence. It 
was better than a victory upon a battlefield. John Adams expressed the opinions of the best 
and greatest men of the day when he wrote to John Jay that it excelled all others in its wis- 
dom. It gave strength and confidence to the patriots of the revolution. The superiority of 
this Constitution was not accidental, nor was it merely the result of the ability of John Jay 
and his associates, who put it into form. It was due to a series of causes, beginning with the 
settleinentof the Dutch on the Hudson and running through the whole period of our colonial 
condition. When the Hollanders settled here they were the foremost people in civilization, 
learning and commerce. They came here in the heroic age of their country. Holland had 



KiNGSTOK. 51 

maintained its independence in a contest of eighty years' duration a^'ainst the power of Spain 
when it overshadowed and threatened tlie liberties of all Europe. This war with Spain excited 
the admiration of the world — it sliould also excite its {gratitude. It was a contest for civil 
and religious liberty in behalf of mankind. 

As this was originally a Dutch colony, the character of that people, and their influence 
upon our institutions, demand imrticular attention. These colonists came here in the heroic 
a^e of Holland. It was the asylum for the persecuted Puritans, as of those of other creeds. 
Constitutional liberty was introduced into Great Britain by the revolution which placed 
upon theBrltish throne the Prince of Orange, who had recently commanded the armies of 
Holland against those of England. The accession of the Dutch monarch essentially mudifled 
the character of the British Government, and invigorated sentiments of freedom in all of her 
colonies. The Hollanders not only tolerated, but invited different nationalities and creeds 
to their new settlement. More enlightened than their age, they had made great advances in 
civil and religious liberty. They rejoiced in the cosmopolitan character of their inhabitants. 
On the other hand, the vigor of character, the appreciation of education and religion, derived 
from the Puritans, are manifested in every quarter of our land, in public and private enter- 
prises. Our people required and possess the characteristics derived from both of these 
sources. He who would seek to deprive the Hollanders or the Puritans of their just share of 
veneration is unworthy to be the descendant of either. 

OxjR People. 

The world has never witnessed a scene of greater moral beauty than the Bay of New York 
presented under the Dutch Government, and at a later day, while its just views of liberty 
continued to influence the community, it had founded, at a period when rights of conscience 
were not recognized in Europe, save in the limited territories of Holland, there were cluster- 
ing around the beautiful harbor of New Amsterdam communities representing different 
nationalities and creeds, living in peaceful intercourse. The Hollanders and Swedes at Man- 
hattan, the Waldenses upon Staten Island, the Walloons and English upon Long Island, and 
the Huguenots upon the banks of the Hudson, found here a refuge from religious persecution. 
What civilized Europe denied them, they sought on this spot, still shaded by primeval forests, 
and still made picturesque by tlie gliding canoe of the savage. The exiles from Piedmont, 
from Frarice, from tlie banks of the Rhine, and from Britain, lived here in peaceful concord, 
as strongly in contrast with the bigotry and intolerance which prevailed elsewhere, as was 
their civilization and refinement to the wild scenes and savage tribes who surrounded them. 
At a later day the persecuted Germans from the Palatine were settled on the Mohawk. A 
colony of Scotch Highlanders, banished for their attachment to the Catholic religion 
and to the romantic fortunes of Charles Edward, found a home, not unlike their native 
hills and lakes, in the northern part of our State. The Irish established themselves in Otsego 
county, and there were settlements of French in Northern and Western New York. A small 
colony of Spaniards once existed near Onondaga Lake, but were destroyed by the Indians. 
The Welsh came to this country soon after the Revolution. Almost every European tongue 
has ever been spoken at the Qresides of our State, and used on each returning Sabbath in 
offerings of iirayer and praise to the God of all languages and all climes. The names, promi- 
nent in the early history of New York and the Union, represent the same number of nationali- 
ties. Schuyler was r)f Holland; Herkimer, of German; Jay, of French; Livingston, of 
Scotch; Clinton, of Irish; Morris, of Welsh ; and Hoffman, of Swedish descent. Hamilton 
was born in one of the English West India Islands, and Baron Steuben, who became a citi- 
zen of New York, was a Prussian, 

The breadth, liberality and wisdom of the first Constitution of New York and its adapta- 
tion to the wants and interests of the mixed population, not only of our State but of the 
Union, is due to the remarkable fact that upon the committee of thirteen appointed to draft 
it there were representatives of seven distinct lineages, namely : Dutch, French, Scotch, 
Welsh, Irish and Swiss. 

Freedom. 

Not only were the cohmists of New York Imbued with sentiments of freedom, but thoy had 
the earliest and most urgent occasions to assert them.- Living without the protection of a 
charter, for a long time under the control of the private ownership of the Dutch We.st India 
Compatiy and the Duke of Vork, amid the unfavorable influences of great seigniories — as 
early as iCOOthcy boldly claimed their legislative rlj^hts, and resisted " taxation without con- 
sent." The contests with the royal governors were conducted on the part of the colonists 
with signal ability, and their protests and arguments were pronounced liy Attorney-General 
Randolph, t)f Virginia, to lie the ablest expositions of the rights of poiuilar representation. 
These controversies involved a wide range of discussion, and thoroughly instructed the peo- 
ple of the colony in the principles of constitutional liberty. The contest which commenced 
in New York between its legislatures and the royal pitvernors extended to other colonies. 



52 Centennial Celebrations. 

and excited tlie public, mind from time to time until the era of the revolution. The whole 
of the Ameriean iieople were then united aj:rainst the asrgressions of the crown. The resolu- 
tions of the New York Assembly were drawn up with consummate ability, and, to use the 
lanyuago of Pitkin, " breathed a spirit more bold and decided than those from any other 
colony." 

While EnKlish character, at the time of the Drst settlement of its colonies on this conti- 
nent, made them exclusive in their policy, repellinjr rather than invitinfj; tlie citizens of other 
nations, it still remains true that we mainly owe to them the vigor and mental activity of the 
American character. After the Hutch Kin;; William mounted tlie British throne, civil 
liberty and political ri^'hts were placed upon a broader and firmer footing. Rapidly jraining 
commercial supreinacy, it acquired not only the wealth and power formerly held by its Dutch 
rivals, but also its larger and cosmopolitan sentiment with regard to the other nations of the 
world. To-day its civilization is in many aspects more perfect than that of any other people. 
But this must not blind the student of history to its low state when its American colonies 
were first planted on our shores. All must see how fortunate it was for the future of our 
country that the Hollanders first occupied the banks of the Hudson and threw open this 
gateway to the interior of the continent to all nationalities and to all creeds. The cosmo- 
politan character of the population of this State gave it from the outset large and liberal 
ideas of jurisprudence. There is not in the political records of this Union a finer declaration 
of political rights than was the act passed by the colonial legislature, in 1(J!U, "declaring what 
are the rights and privileges of their Majesty's subjects inhabiting within their province of 
New Yorlc.'* 

When England first sent its colonies to this continent, its civilization was comparatively at 
a low ebb. While it could boast of many great statesmen and scholars, the mass of the peo- 
ple, as is shown by its historians, were narrow in their views. Even yet, there lingers ill 
English minds a dislilte of all usages and customs of other people. We are apt to charge 
former bi;i0try to religious sects, and to make them alone responsible for acts and opinions 
whiclt were national. Neither liberty nor toleration had free scope under the Tudors or Stu- 
arts. While Cromwell restored for a while the national vigor, religious freedom could not 
take root when civil war, en^bittered by sectarian passions, devastated the realm. The con- 
tests were mainly to decide which party should gain the power to persecute the others. 

New England. 

Great injustice has been done to the first settlers of New England, by charging against 
them, as i)eculiarities of theirs, sentiments which pervaded the body of the British people, 
and which were not merely colonial prejudices nor sectarian bigotries. There has not been 
in the public mind a just discrimination as to which were colonial and which national errors 
in policy. This has caused an unjust and widespread prejudice against the founders of the 
eastern colonies. 

When, therefore, an early law-maker, of Massachusetts, declared his detestation of relig- 
ious toleration, and stigmatized a country filled with different sects as a "hell above ground," 
ho spoke as an Englishman, not as a Puritan, for his co-religionists in Holland held no such 
opinions. He uttered the pervading sentiment not only of New England, but of Old England 
as well. Other sects there agreed with him as to his text, however they might difl'er as to 
the application. The Churchman in Virginia was as loud in demands for an established 
creed, in accordance with his views, as was the Puritan of New England. Although the 
Catholic proprietor of Maryland extended toleration to al! religions, when other sects gained 
the strength they persecuted those of his own faith . In grand contrast with this pervading 
intolerance was the higlier civilization of the Hollanders. 

The rebuke given by the directors to one of the governors, who was inclined to persecute the 
Quakers, is a clear and beautiful illustration of their sentiments: " Let every one remain 
free as long as he is modest, moderate, his political conduct irreproachable, and as long as he 
does not offend others or oppose the government. This maxim of moderation has always 
been the guide of our magistrates in this city (Amsterdam), and the consequence has been 
that people have flocked from every land to this Asylum. Tread, then, in their steps, and 
we doubt not you will be blest." 

Honor to the Fathers. 
At this day in our Union religious intolerance has lost its worst aspects, but it is still our 
duty to honor the founders of our State in the same loyal spirit which animates the citizens 
of other sections, when they speak of the virtues of their fathers. This day is more sacred 
Willi us as it gives due honor to a people who have lost their control here, and their superior 
power elsewhere. Our tributes cannot be charged to pride of birth, for but few of our peo- 
jjio are of Holland lineage. The writer is proud of his New England descent. Liberal and 
enligl'.tened sentiments now pervade our land. A people made up of all nationalities cannot 



Kingston. 53 



long retain proviiuial views and prejudices. Tliese are fast dying out, even in those States 
wliich are one side of the great currents of Iiunian movements which are filling our country 
witii a vast and varied population. 

May we not fairly claim tliat tiie policy of the men of New York, before and since the Rev- 
olution, lias done much to give our country the benefit of all forms of civilization, and the 
vigor and liljondity whicli spring from intercourse among those who look upon social and 
political problems from dilfererit standpoints? 

As its legislative halls and its .judicial tribunals have at all times been controlled by those of 
different European lineage, and its laws and jurisprudence have from the first been in 
harmony with the interests and wants of the States which have come into existence since 
our Union was formed, New York, for these reasons, has exerted a great influence upon the 
IKilitical organizations, the legislation and the jurisprudence of a large portion of <pur 
country. 

I am truly yours, etc., 

HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

The following was read, from Chief Judge Chuech ; 

Albion, J«?i; 19, 1877. 
Mv Dear Judge — I regret that I shall be unable to attend the Centennial Celebration at 
your place, but I am gratified that it promises to be a success, as I sincerely hope it may be. 
A strict and rigid observance of written constitutions is indispensable to the perpetuation of 
free government, and the occasion will furnish a favorable opportunity of impressing this 
sentiment upon the people. 

Yours truly, 

S. E. CHURCH. 
• Bon. T. R. Wcsthrook. 

Letters were also read from President Hayes, Willia:m M. Evaets, 
Fk^\:ncis Keen-aj^, Governor RoBmsoN, General Dix and others. 
In the evening a grand disj^lay of fireworks was made. 



©tisTiittxtj* 




lERXI] 



THE BATTLE AT ORISKANY. 



Proceedii^gs of the Celebeatiois', 

AUGUST 6, 1877. 



A proper celebration of the Battle of Oriskany, upon its one hun- 
dredth anniversary, was the spontaneous desire of the residents of the 
section in which it occurred, and from which its actors were deri%'ed. 
This wish found expression in many quarters of that section eai-ly in 
1877, the third year of centeimial commemoration of revolutionary 
events. In compliance with numerous suggestions in the public press, 
and elsewhere, that the Oneida Historical Society, at Utica, was the 
ajipropriatc organization to inaugurate a systematic plan for the desired 
celebration, a special meeting of that body was held for the pui-pose, 
at Utica, on the 8th day of June, 1877, at which the follo-wang reso- 
lutions were adopted : 

One hundred j-ears from August 0, 1877, there occurred, near the junction of 
the Oriskiiny and Jlohawk streams, the most desperate and sanguinary and one 
of the most important battles of the American Revokition. On that spot the whole 
military force of the Mohawk Yallej-, proceeding to the relief of besieged Fort 
Stanwix, encountered the in\'ading army, and nearly one-half laid down their 
lives in defense of home and country. This conflict prevented the union of the 
invaders -n-ith Burgoyne, at the Hudson, and contributed to his surrender. 

It is eminently proper, in this era of centennial celebrations of the Revolution, 
that this event should be suitably commemorated. The battle of Oriskany is the 
prominent feature of revolutionary history in this section. It seems to devolve 
upon the Oneida Historical Society, as nearest to the locality, to take the initiative 
steps, and to invite the co-operation of other organizations and individuals 
throughout the Jlohawk Valley in an appropriate and worthy celebration of this 
memorable conflict, upon its hundredth anniversary; therefore, 

Resfohed, Tliat a meeting be held on the 10th day of .June, at 2 P. M., at the 
Common Comicil Chamber, in Utica, to make arrangements for the centennial cele- 
bration of the Battle of Oriskany, on the battle ground. 
8 



58 Centennial Celebrations. 

Besohed, That all organizations, desirous of participating, are cordially invited 
to send representatives to said meeting. 

Sesolpcd, That the chair ajjpoint a committee of arrangements to represent this 
society, and that it shall be the duty of this committee to issue all proper invita- 
tions, and make all necessary arrangements for such meeting. 

The following committee was appointed : 

S. Deking, R. S. Williams, C. W. Hutchinson, T. P. B.\llou, M. M. Jones, 
Utica; Gteorge Graham, Oriskany ; D. E. Wager, S. G. Visscher, Rome; E. 
North, Clinton; E. Graves, Herkimer; Webster Wagner, Palatine Bridge. 

The in^dtation was warmly responded to throughout the Mohawk 
Valley. Meetings of citizens and organizations were at once held, and 
delegates appointed to represent them on the 19th of June. At that 
meeting a programme of the necessary committees for the celebration 
was adopted. Ex-Governor Hoeatio Seymour was chosen, by accla- 
mation, President of the day, and the following general committee of 
arrangements Avas appointed : 

Utica — Charles W. Hutchinson, S. S. Lowery, Harvey D. Talcott, Syl- 
vester Bering, P. F. Bulger. 

Hoine — Joseph Porter, S. G. Visscher, D. E. Wager, D. L. Stevens. 

Whitestown — Philo White. 

Orialcamj — George Graham, David S. Landpear, Alonzo I. King, Isaac 
Fonda. 

Clinton — O. S. Williams. 

Lewis County — Garrett L. Roof. 

HerMmer County — Samuel Earl, A. M. McKeb, C. A. Moon, Peter F. Bel- 
linger, Eli Fox, George Timmerman, W. H. H. Parkhurst. 

Madison County — C. A. Walrath. 

Montgomery County — Simeon Sammons, John H. Starin, Webster Wagner, 
Dow A. Fonda, Jeptha R. Simms, Alfred Wagner, Stephen Sandford. 

Fulton County — McIntyre Fraser, John A. Wells. 

Schenectady — William Wells. 

Sub-committees on invitations, monument, military, firemen, grounds, 
transportation, reporters, etc., were also named. At a subsequent 
meeting of the general committee of arrangements, Alfred J. Wagner, 
of Fort Plain, was unanimously chosen Grand Marshal, and Daniel T. 
Everts, of Utica, was made Chief of Staff. 

It is unnecessary in this place to mention the many subordinate 
meetings and proceedings, which occupied the public attention down 
to the memorable day. The records of these may be found in the 
files of the public journals in the Mohawk Valley. It is sufficient to 
state that all the details requisite for a complete and satisfactory result 



Oriskant. 59 

were carefully and industriously perfected in the several localities 
interested, and liy the officers and the committees charged witli the 
respective duties. The historic grounds were thrown open to the 
public, and duly prepared for its reception. Invitations were sent to 
those who from official station or personal association with the event, 
were considei'cd appropriate guests for the occasion. 

So much is necessary simply to introduce the celebration itself. 
Nothing can show more conclusively the patriotic ardor of the people 
in these celebrations than an account of the manner in which they 
were conducted. 

THE PEOOEEDINGS. 

From the official account published b}' the Oneida Historical Societv, 
we take the following account of the general scenes of the celebra- 
tion : 

" iSTatin-e never provided a more favorable day for such an entertain- 
ment than Monday, August G, ] 877. It opened with a cloudless sky 
and an invigorating temperature. With the dawn of that matchless 
day thousands, doubtless, first resolved to participate. 

" At sunrise the salutes fired from the guns on the battle-field and 
all along the Yalley of the JMohawk, awakened the people to prepare 
for the glorious day. From this h<wr until late in the day they poured 
into Utica, Rome and other places en route to Oriskany by hundreds 
and thousands, on foot, horseback, by wagons, carriages, boats, steamers 
and rail. Men, women and children, old and young, rich and poor — 
all classes went ' on to Oriskany.' The roads, lanes, by-ways, hills, val- 
lej's, were black with people who were brown and begi'imed with 
dust. There was no end to the stream of humanity until nearly dark, 
many visiting the grounds even at dark. 

" Shortly after 7 a. m., (xraud Marshal Wagner, with Chief of Staff 
Everts and aids, left head-quarters ^t Baogs' Hotel, Utica, for Oris- 
kany. They had a pleasant ride to ]irepare them for the work of the 
day. Chief Everts immediately sent out couriers to the places of ren- 
dezvous of the various divisions an<l (U'tachments, to find if all M'as in 
readiness. Prompt returns were made ; the fii-st from the battle- 
gi'ound camp to report was Colonel George Yorxo and his cavalry 
corps, admirably mounted and equipped ; Whitestown, Marshal Mills, 
the Herkimer County Fire Dejiartmeut, the Kirkland Division, and 
other organizations followed in order. 



60 Centennial Celebrations. 

THE GRAND PEOCESSION. 

At 11:10 A. M., precisely, the grand military and civic procession 
marched from Oriskauy village along the road to the battle-field in the 
following order: 

Chief AsBT and Police. 

Grand Marshal A. J. Wagner and StaflE. 

Young's Independent Cavalry Corps, escort to the Grand Marshal. 

Sherman's Band, New Hartford. 

Twenty-sixth Battalion Band. 

Hon. Horatio Seymour, President of the Day. 

Flag in possession of Mrs. Abraham Lansikg, granddaughter of Col. Gansevoort. 

Rev. Dr. Van Deusbn, Chaplain of the Day, and Orators. 

Portrait of General Herkimer, in charge of a Descendant. 

Veterans of 1813, in Carriages. 

Chairman Jokn F. Seymour and Committee of Arrangements. 

MONTGOMERY AND FULTON COUNTIES. 

Commodore JoiiN H. Starin and Staff. 
General E. A. Brown and StaS. 

PIEST DIVISION. 

Johnstown Cornet Band. 

First Separate Company of Infantry, .Johnstown. 

Johnstown Artillery. 

Commodore Starin's Gun Squad. 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Thirteenth Brigade Band, Amsterdam. 

Second Separate Company of Schenectady. 

Descendants of Oriskany Veterans. 

Canajoharie Drum Corps. 

Post Farrcl, G. A. R., Canajoharie. 

Montgomery and Fulton Committees, in Carriages. 

Veterans of 1813, in Carriages. 

HERKIMER COUNTY. 

t 

Marshal A. M. Mills and Staff. 

FIRST DIVISION. 

Herkimer's Old Brass Band. 

German Flats Minute Jlen. 

Taylor's Lightning Battery, of Ilion. 

Ilion Veteran Gun Squad. 

Veterans of 1813. 

Descendants of Oriskany Veterans. 

G. A. R. Drum Corps. 



Okiskany. 61 

Galpiii Post, G. A. R., Cominaiiflpr BnowN. 
Chismore Post, 6. A. K., llion. 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Little Falls Coriu-t Band. 
Officers Little Falls Fire Department, 
Protection Engine and Hcse Company. ' • 

Officers Herkimer Fire Department. 

Fort Dayton Engine and Hose Company. 

Jlohawk Cornet Band. 

Frankfort Fire Department. 

Chief BuDLONG and Assistants. 

Columbian Engine Company. 

Tiger Hose Company. 

Veterans of Oriskany and 1813. 

Committee, Village Officers and Distinguished Citizens. 

ONEIDA COUNTY. 

KIRKIiAND DIVISION. 

Marshal J. T. Watson and Staff. 

Kirkland Jlinute Men, ^Mounted. 

Veterans of the War, Mounted. 

Clinton Cornet Band. 

Veterans of the War of 1813. 

Clinton Fire Department. 

Chief Engineer Benedict and Assistants. 

E.xcelsior Fire Company. 

St. Patrick's M. B. & L. Society. 

150 Carriages of Citizens. 

Village Trustees, Committees and Guests, covering nearly three miles of road. 

WIIITESTOWN DIVISION. 

Marslial Wetmoke and Staff. 

Oriskany Cornet Band. 

Grand Army Veterans. 

Vice-Presidcnt-at-large Hon. Piiilo White. 

Trustees of Village and Committees. 

Whitesboro Fire Department. 

Column of Mechanics from Babbitt's Whitesboro Iron Works, Mounted. 

Norman Stallion Monarch, .Jr., Mounted on Wagon. 

Banner — "We Honor the Heroes of Oriskany's Battle." 

New York Mills Band. 

Post Ross, G. A. R., New York Mills. 

3Iinute Men, Mounted. 

Clergy, Committee, Citizens. 

WESTMOUEI..\XD DIVISION. 

Marshal J.\mes Dean and Staff. 

Westmoreland Band. 

Veterans of 1812. 



(32 Centennial Celebrations. 

Jlinuti' >U'ii, jMoiintfcl. 
Masonic Lodges, Mounted. 
I. O. G. T. Lodges, iu Carriages. 
Committee and Citizens, in Carriages. 

ROME DIVISION. 

Marshal Frank B. Beehs and StafE. 

Chief AViLDs and Police. 

Old Kouie Baud. 

Skillin Post, G. A. R., No. 4. 

Veterans of Army and Navy. 

First Ward ilinute :\Ien. 

Second Ward Minute Jlen. 

Third "Ward :Minute ilen. 

Fourth Ward Jlinute 3Ieu. 

Fifth Ward Jlinute Men. 

Oneida Indians. 

Rome Cornet Band. 

Chief Engineer Shanley and Assistants 

Rome Fire Department. 

General Ganesvoort Steamer Company. 

Stryker Hose Company. 

Fort Stanwix Steamer Company. 

^tna Ilose Company. 

Washington Ilose Company. 

Mohawk Hose Company. 

Committee, Citizens, Clergy and Guests. 

UTICA DIVISION. 

Brigadier-General Sylvester Bering and StafiE. 

Old Utica Band. 

Utica Citizens' Corps escorting Governor Robinson's Staff, Mayor Gafpin and 

Common Council of Utica. 

Adjutant Bacon Cadets, escorting Veterans of 1813. 

Twenty-first Brigade. 

First Separate Troop Cavalry. 

Fort Stanwix Guards. 

Armstrong Guards. 

Battalion Band. 

Twenty-sixth Battalion. 

Lieut. -Col. P. F. Bui-ger and Staff. 

Hutchinson Light Guards. 

L'tica Coukling Corps. 

Utiea Veteran Zouaves. 

Utica Dcring Guards. 

Post Bacon, G. A. R., Commander Bright. 

Post Curran, G. A. R. 

Veterans of 1812. 

Vetenins of the Army and Navy. 

Clergy, Committee and Citizens, in Carriages. 



Okiskany. 63 

The varuMis divisions not reporting at tlie village were in readiness 
at the jjlaces of rendezvous assigned to them, as follows : 

Whitesboro and New York Mills on tho farms of 5Iessrs. Roberts and Yoxel, 
just west of the Church. Kirkhind Division at the main street, Oriskanj'. 
Westmoreland Division at Cider street. Rome Division on the right side of the 
lane leading from Betsinger's bridge to the main road. Brigadier-General Deu- 
ING and 21st Brigade upon the Hill south of the Rome division. The Utica 
Division upon the south side of the main road on .T. Betsinger's farm, and many 
independent organizations at other points along the route. 

As the head <if the cohinin reached the military organizations located 
along the route, salutes were fired and trooiis came to a present. Both 
sides of the road were lined with people, who cheered enthusiastically 
the carriage containing Governor Seymouk, Mrs. Lapsing, and the 
old flag of Gen. Gansevoort. 

The location of the 21st Brigade, the Utica Citizens' Coi-ps and 
Adjutant Bacon Cadets was an admirable one on the north hillside. 
General Derixg and the Home Cavalry Troop came riding over the 
hill as the column ajjproached. The 26tli Battalion remained back on the 
lull, while the Corps stood at a " present " in the front and center of 
the field, the Adjutant Bacon Cadets on the left, and the Eome Divis- 
ion on the north side of the road. An elevation in the road gave all a 
magnificent view of the grand ])anoramic beauty of the Mohawk Val- 
ley and the hills beyond, brilliant with emerald hues. Salutes, cbeers 
and waving handkerchiefs greeted the column from all directions. So 
admirably were all the arrangements perfected that little, if any delay, 
was caused by the filing into line of the separate divisions. 

In passing the ravine, where so many of General Herkimer's brave 
men fell one hundred years ago, all the troops honored the spot by 
coming to a carry, and colors were dipped. These honors were the 
occasion of still more enthusiastic cheering. 

The head of the column reached the entrance to the battle-field west 
of the ravine at 12:20 v. m., or one hour and ten minutes after leaving 
Oi-iskany. It led on over the route taken by General Herkimer in 
1777 to the west of the field, wheeled to the north and moved on to 
the line of the grand marshal's field quarters, then to the east past the 
grand stand, where Governor Seymour, Mi-s. Lansing with the old 
flag, the orators and distinguished guests alighted — the column mov- 
ing around the amphitheater to the south and west again, until a hol- 
low square was formed around the amphitheater and grand stand. The 
eolinnn occupied just an hour in passing a given point near the field. 

From the grand nuirshal's tent the view presented at the time 
of the moving of the column on the field wiis one that never can 



64 Centennial Celebrations. 

be forgotten. The amphitheater seemed to be formed for the occas- 
ion. It commanded a view of the wliole of the grounds, with the 
exception of the center of the southern portion of the ravine. The 
eminence on the east side, with Camp Seymour, the camps on the 
south side of the road, the vilhige of booths and tents, the brilliant dis- 
play of n^oving uniformed and armed men, their arms and trappings 
dazzling the eyes in the sunlight, and — more imposing than all, the 
constantly moving mass of humanity that covered every portion of the 
field and all its surrounding, formed a panoramic view that has never 
been sui-passed, if equaled, in this State. The best estimate formed by 
comparing the notes of men of experience makes the number present 
between 60,000 and 75,000. It was a hard task to estimate by count- 
ing groups, becai;se the people were constantly moving. In addition 
to the masses within view on all parts of the field, the road between 
Oriskany and Rome was filled with people. All the fields for miles 
ai'ound were occupied at noon. 

To complete the picture of the celebration it is only necessary to 
add a few items taken from the newspaper accounts, indicative of the 
manner of the celebration and the ardor of the people. The Utica 
Observer, an afternoon daily, says on the day of celebration : 

" Utica is to-day a deserted city. Every imaginable form of loco- 
motion has been taxed to its utmost to convey the vast crowds from 
this city, which make up a respectable portion of the assembled con- 
course. Over all roads bearing west, there has been continuous travel 
for the last nine hours, carryalls, hacks, private vehicles of every form, 
date and description thronged the highways. The speed}' little steamers 
and their larger and more significant sisters have puffed up and down 
between the canal banks, groaning beneath the unaccustomed weight 
of thousands. It is impossible to even approximately estimate the 
number which Utica has contributed to make the celebration an over- 
whelming success. 



-■& 



Saturday evening will be long remembered in Utica. It is always a 
night which presents unusual attractions to a large class, but seldom, if 
ever, lias Genesee street been so crowded of an evening as it was then. 
To this the circus contributed somewhat, but it was chiefly due to the 
general sense of the approaching celebration, which seemed to fill the 
very air. Mcist of the stores were brilliantly lighted, and the wide 
sidewalks were crowded to the utmost. 

* * -X- **«-»*** * 

Sunday was spent on the grounds very quietly. It is true that 



Oriskany. 65 

bands played at intervals. A coinpaTiy of Post Avenue singers tra- 
versed the ground, and drnin corps marclied about, while people in 
crowds tramped from point to point in continuous procession — but, save 
one tight, no disturbance took place. 

Still the day did not savor at all of S unday. Rev. Mr. Skeel, of 
Whitesboro, preached a brief sermon in the near vicinity of the Cadets' 
cam]i, and ol)tained a large audience and respectful hearing, but aside 
from this, religious exercises Mere how est. 

The Battalion observed the day quietly, having a dress parade at 5 
p. M., which was creditably performed. 

The Cadets had a dress parade in the morning and another at sunset. 

Toung's Cavalry Corps had a dress parade in the evening. Sherman's 
Band, of New flartfc^rd, gave them an open-air concert later. The 
dress jiarade M'as done with military precision and effectiveness. The 
concert \vas well worth hearing. 

This morning, Monday, the village of Oriskany was thronged— nay, 
crowded with people. There was scarcely room to walk in the sti-eets. 
On this account the prett}^ decoration of the village homes passed 
unnoticed by very manj'. Nevertheless, they were very fine, and from 
the bridge westward there was one almost continuous line of pretty 
things on the houses and in the yards. 

The Utica Herald of the day following contained the following items : 

The Railko^ld Arrangements. 

Superintendent Priest and his employees were kept busy yesterday in 
providing railroad transportation to the battle-field. All the available 
coaches on the division were pressed into service and yet everj' train 
was crowded from the locomotive to the rear platform. From 8:15 
A. St. to late in the afternoon the special and regular trains going Avest 
Avere run as rapidly as possible for safety and to keep out of the way of 
through trains. During the morning seven or more ticket offices were 
opened in the I'tica depot. General Prikst, Agents Andrews and Jones, 
Clerk Earl, ex-conductor IIadcock, Roadmaster Angell, Depot Master 
LiNSiiAN and others being pressed into service to deal out pasteboards 
in exchange for thirty cents. Not one in five could get tickets as fast 
as they wanted them, and the majority paid on the trains. This came 
from disregarding Agent Andrews' advice to procure tickets Saturday. 
Finally the supply of battle-ground tickets gave out, and the agents 
had to fall back on cards to Rome, Oneida and other stations. Passen- 
gers rode on the roofs of the coaches and in all other places to which 
they could iiang, and foitiuiatcly all escajjod injury as far as reported, 
n 



66 Centennial Celebrations. 

Branch ticket offices had to be opened in all the stations east of this 

city. General Priest paid his entire attention to the running of the 

trains, and in the afternoon remained at the hattle-ground station so as 

to see that every thing possible was done to accommodate the multitude. 

He frankly admitted that the crowd was seventeen times larger than 

he had calculated^ upon and did not cease wondering about where all the 

people came from. 

* * * * * * ■;<• -X- * * * 

One of the important incidents of the battle of one hundred years 

ago was the occurrence of a terrible storm during the night of the 

engagement. This proved to be of great service to General Herkimer's 

army and aided in demoralizing the enemy. The general committee 

arranged for a similar storm at a late hour in the afternoon, so as to 

have every thing complete, hut there was some hitch in the programme, 

and, ■strange to say, every 07ie except the stragglers got home without a 

wetting, but — we had the storm. About 9 p. m a lively storm came up, 

with splendid electrical displays and salvos of thunder claps, which 

awakened the echoes like the artillery of the morning. The storm 

purified the air, laid the dust, and perfected the programme, so that all 

should be satisfied. 

The LriEEAET Exekcises. 

The literary exercises of the celebration began promptly after the 
arrival of the procession on the battle-field. The vast concourse Avas 
called to order by John F. Seymouk, Chairman of the General Com- 
mittee of An-angements. Chief of Staff Eveets announced the 
immediate order of exercises, and Eev. Dr. E. M. Van Deusen, rector 
of Grace church, Utica, offered prayer. 

Ex-Governor Hoeatio Seymoue was then introduced by Mr. Gea- 
HAM, and was received with hearty applause. His point of address 
was from under a stout spreading tree, where a platform had been 
erected, while the people sat on benches arranged in a semi-circle in 
front, though a much larger crowd was compelled to stand in the aisles 
and the rear. 



ADDEESS OF WELCOME BY HON. HOEATIO SEYMOUE. 

All who care for the glory of our country, nil who love to study the history of 
events which have shaped our civilization, government and laws; all who seek to 
lift up the virtues of our people by filling their minds with lofty standards of 
patriotism, will rejoice that we meet to-day on this battle-field to honor the 
courage and devotion displayed here one hundred years ago. The sacred duty in 
which we are engaged does not merely concern the memories of the dead ; it 



Oriskany. 67 

teaches the duties and elevates the character of the living. The command that 
we honor our fathers is not oiil}' a religious requirement, but it is a grave maxim 
of jurisprudence. Those who think and speak of virtue and patriotism sow in 
their own and iu the minds of others the seeds of virtue and patriotism. The 
men of the valley of the Mohawk will be wiser and better for this gathering 
upon the spot where their fathers fought and sufEered, and bled to uphold the 
cause of this country. 

Effect of the Celebration. 

The preparation for this celebration, the events of the day, the facts which will 
be brought to light, the duties which will be taught, will in some degree tell 
upon the character of every man before me. They wU do more. They -ndll 
revive the legends of the past in ever}' household in this valley. They will give 
them currency among all classes, and weave them into woof and warp of popular 
knowledge. JIuch that was dying out will be revived and stamped upon the 
memories of the oncoming generation. This celebration makes our hills and 
streams teachers of virtue. It gives new interest to the course of our river and 
our valley. For, henceforth, they will recall to our minds more clearly the events 
of the past. Every spot noted for some stirring act will hereafter, as we pass 
them by, remind us of the deeds of our fathers. The old churches and homes 
built when Britain ruled our country, and which were marred by war when this 
valley was desolated by torch and tomahawk, will grow more sacred in our eyes. 
Their time-worn walls will teach us in their silent way to think of suffering, of 
bloodshed, of ruthless ravages, more dreadful and prolonged than were endured 
elsewhere during the revolutionary struggle. 

New York in History. 

We are this day bringing out the events of our country in their true light. 
Historians have done much and well in making up the records of the past. But 
their recitals have not yet become, as they should be, a part of the general intel- 
ligence of our people. Views are distorted by local prejudices. Events are not 
seen in their just proportions" or in proper perspectives. This is mainly due to 
the neglect of its history by New York. There is a dimness in the popular vision 
about this great center, soiu-ce and theatre of events which have shaped the civili- 
zation, usages and government of this continent. This is not only a wrong to our 
State, but to our Union. It has left the annals of other sections disjointed from 
their due relationships to the great body of our traditions. This want of an 
understanding of the affairs of New York has been to the history of our country 
what the conquest by Britain of its strongholds during the Revolution would have 
been to the American cause. It has broken its unity. 

Our Duty. 

Let us who live along the course of the >Iohawk now enter upon our duty of 
making its history as familiar as household words. Let us see that the graves of 
dead patriots are marked by monuments. Let suitable structures tell the citizens 
ol other States and countries, when they pa.ss along our thoroughfares, where its 
great events were enacted. And let all this be done in a way that shall stir our 
hearts and educate our minds. Let it not be done by virtue of an act of Legis- 
lature, but by virtue of our own efforts and patriotism. Let us not look elsewhere 



68 Centennial Celebrations. 

for aid w lien wi' would honor the memories of those wlio here served their 
country in the heart of our State. To my mind, this would be as unfit as for that 
family whose circle has been broken by death to let strangers come in and per- 
form the last sacred office to their departed kindred. Let our colleges teach their 
students the history of the jiu-isprudence of New York, and it will make them 
wiser citizens when they enter upon the duties of life. Let our more youthful 
scholars be taught the events and traditions which make our hills instinct with 
glowing interest. Let the family circle by the iireside learn the legends of our 
valley, and let the mother with glowing jiride tell to her offspring what those of 
their own blood and lineage did for their country's welfare, so that patriotism 
should be kindled at each hearthstone. Let the rich mau give of his abundance, 
and the poor what he can, with a willing heart, and then when monuments shall 
stand on this field or on other spots consecrated by the ashes of those who per- 
ished for their coimtry, such monuments will not only show that the memories of 
the dead have been honored, but that the living are intelligent, virtuous and 
patriotic. 

The Importance op New York. 

When Eiu'opeans first came to our shores they found the region stretching from 
the Atlantic to the Jlississippi, from the great lakes to tlie center of the present 
State of North Carolina, luider the control of the Iroquois. They gained their 
power by their possession of the strongholds in this State. From these they fol- 
lowed the diverging \alleys, which gave them pathways into the country of their 
enemies, who were divided by the chains of mountains which separated the rivers 
after they had taken their courses from the highlands of New York. For more 
than a century a contest in arms and diplomacy was carried on between Great 
Britain and France for the control of that system of mountains and rivers of this 
State, which made the Iroquois the masters of all adjacent tribes. Albany, at the 
confluence of the ilohawk and Hudson, became the colonial capital of the British 
settlements. It was the ]Hnnt from which, during the long years of the French 
war, most of the military expeditions were sent forth. It was the place at which 
were held the meetings of the agents of the several colonies, and at which they 
learned the value of co-operation and conceived the idea of a union of the colonies. 
Jlost of the revolutionary struggle was marked by the same continuous effort of 
the contending parties to gain control of the commanding positions of this State. 

The battles of Oriskany, Bennington and Saratoga, gave to our fathers the vic- 
tory in the contest. When our indeiiendcnco was achieved, the valleys, which had 
been the war-paths of the savage and civilized armies, became the great thorough- 
fares through which the still mightier armies of immigration from Europe and the 
East filled the interior of our continent. At our feet are railroads and water routes 
tliat have been for a series of years the thoroughfares for a vast current of com- 
merce, and the greatest movement of the human race recorded in its history. All 
other movements, in war or peace, are insignificant in com]iarison with the vast 
numbers that have passed along the borders of this battle-field to find homes in 
the great plains of the "West, to organize social systems and to build up great 
States. The histories of our country, w-hich fail to set forth clearly the events of this 
great central point, are as obscure and as defective, as would be an attempt to de- 
scribe the physical aspects of the country, and yet should omit a mention of the 
great streams of our land on the highlands of our State which flow from them into 
the cold waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, into the tepid currents of the Gulf of 
Mexico, or the great bays of New York, of the Delaware and Chesapeake. The 



Oriskany. ■ 69 

currents of I'vents which distiiif^iiish mir history, like the currents of our rivers, 
have largely had their origin in our territory. 

To thr ccrenionies of this day in honor of those who battled for American liberty 
in the l>iist, anil in the faitli that this day's proceedings will promote virtue and 
patriotism in the fiitinv, we extend a welcome to all in attendance here. To the 
State officials who honor us by their presence; to citi/.ens and soldiers wlio mani- 
fest their gratitude to those who sacrified so much on the ground for the public 
welfare. It is with no ordinary feelings that we meet the descendants of those 
who fought at the battle of Oriskany, one of the most fierce and bloody contests 
of the Revolution. As we saw them coming along the course of the Mohawk the 
past seemed to be recalled. When we look at the array from the upper valley 
and those who sallied from Fort Stanwix to join us here, we feel reinforced by 
friends, as our fathers, from the same quarters. We welcome all to this celeljra- 
tion of patriotic service and sacrifice. When it is closed we .shall bid you God- 
speed to your several homes, with the prayer that in your different walks of life 
you will do your duty as manfully and serve your country as faithfully as the men 
who battled so bravely on this ground one hundred years ago. 

The audience listened with marked attention and appreciation, often 
interrupting tlie S2)eaker vith hearty applause. 

Untueling the Flag. 
Wlien the ajiplause had subsided, Gov. Skymoue said he had some- 
thing more to say, and spoke as follows : 

It is a just source of patriotic pride to those who live in this valley that the flag 
of our country (with the stars and stripes) was first displayed in the face of our 
enemies on the banks of the Mohawk. Here it was baptised in the blood of 
battle. Here it first waved in triumph over a retreating foe. When the heroic 
defenders of Fort Stanwix learned in that remote fortress the emblems adopted 
by the Continental Congress for the standards to be borne bj' its armies, they 
hastened to make one in accordance with the mandate and to hang it out from 
the walls of their fortress. It was rudely made of such materials cut from the 
clothing of the soldiers as were fitted to show its colors and its designs. But no 
other standard, however skillfully wrought upon silken folds, could equal in 
interest this flag of our country worked o\it by the unskilled hands of brave men, 
amid the strife of war and under the fire of beleaguering foes. It was to rescue 
it from its peril that the men of this valley left their homes and marched through 
the deep forest to this spot. 

It was to uphold the cause of which it was the emblem that they battled here. 
Time has destroyed that standard. But I hold in my hand another banner hardly 
less sacred in its associations with our history. It is the flag of our State which 
was borne by the regiment commanded by Colonel Gansevoort. not only here at 
the beginning of the revolutionary war, but also when it was ended by the surrender 
of the British army at Yorktown. The brave soldier who carried it through so many 
contests valued it beyond all other earthly possessions. He left it as a precious 
heirloom to his family. They have kept it with such faithful care that again, 
after a century has rolled away, its folds can be displayed in this valley to 



70 Centennial Celebrations. 

another generation, who will look upon it with a devotion equal to that felt by 
those who followed it on the battle-fields of the Revolution. When it is now 
unfurled, let it receive the military honors accorded it a hundred years ago ; and 
let us reverently uncover our heads in memory of the dead who watched and 
guarded it through the bloodshed and perils of ancient war. 

Hon. John F. Seymour then lifted the flag which floated proudl}' in 
the breeze. At the sight of it the vast audience gave three rousing 
cheei's and lifted their hats. All the military presented arms, and the 
bauds played the " Star Spangled Banner." The Fultonville battery 
belched forth a salute which shook the hills, and cheer upon cheer went 
up. The effect was thrilling. , Three hearty cheers were given for 
General Peter Gansevoort and his descendants. 

History of the Flag. 

This flag was the standard of the Third New York regiment, commanded by 
Colonel Peter Gansevoort, who at the disbandment of the army retained it in his 
own possession and handed it do\\'n to his son, the late Peter Gansevoort, from 
whom it descended to his daughter, Mrs. Abraham Lansing, in whose hands it 
is now preserved with the greatest care. The flag consists of a piece of heavy 
blue silk, of very fine quality, and which has preserved its color remarkably. Its 
present dimensions arc those of a square, being nearly seven feet each way, but 
it is probable that it was originally somewhat longer and better proportioned. 
The outer edge is hemmed, but on the upper and lower margin the fringe, which 
no doubt was once very rich and extended all around, still remains. The design 
upon the flag represents the arms of the State of New York, but not as at present, 
nor yet like the seal adopted in 1778. It is probable that it was painted while 
the design of 1778 was under consideration, as it bears sonie resemblance to it. 
In the center there is an oval shield upon which is depicted the sun rising from 
behind a mountain jjeak, the foot of which reaches down to water; above the 
shield is the eagle standing upon a hemisphere. The shield is supported on either 
hand by female figures about twenty-five inches high, on the left Liberty, on the 
right Justice holding the even balance, beneath all a scroll bearing the word 
"Excelsior." 

Notwithstanding the care which has been bestowed upon it, this sacred relic 
shows the ravages of time, the painting being somewhat cracked, and the silk 
rent with many a gash. So much as remains, however, will be handed down to 
posterity, to be regarded by each generation with deeper reverence and affection. 

Thanks to Mes. Lansing. 

Gov. Seymour then spoke of the lady who had kindly consented to 
allow the flag to be e.xhibited. He said : 

We owe it to the kindness of a lady, the granddaughter of the heroic Ganse- 
voort, that the interest of this occasion has been heightened by the exhibition of 
the banner which was just displayed. As I have stated he left it as an lieirloom 
to his descendants. It now belongs to his granddaughter, Mrs. AnrtAnAM Lan- 
sing, of Albany. We could not ask her to surrender it even for a short time into 



OlilSKANY. 71 

our li:iniis, for \\r fell tliiit no one of Uic liiR'iigc of Colouel Gansevoort would 
surrender a Hag. Tlie effort to get him to do that was unsuccessfully tried by St. 
Leger, although he had an army to enforce his demands. We therefore urged 
her to lionor us by her presence at this time and to bring with her as its guardian 
the banner which has just been exhibited. I know I express the feelings of this 
asseml)hige when I say that in complying with our request, she has conferred upon 
us a favor whicli will long be remembered in the valley of the Mohawk. In 
behalf of this assembly, I thank her for her kindness and for her presence on this 
occasion. 

Tlie amlicnee expressed its appreciation by three hearty cheers and 
contiiiuud applause for General Gansevoort and his descendants. 

An intermission of one hour was then announced, and the tliousands 
of people went in search of dinner. 



AT THE WEST STAND 

At 2:4.5, when the exercises at tlie West Stand were opened, a dense 
throng was congregated, packed around on all sides. Tlie platform 
was in a hollow, in the scanty shade of an apple tree, the people clos- 
ing around as in an amphitheater, only pressing closely upon the arena. 
The Old Utica Band, stationed mider a neighboring apple tree, opened 
the exercises. 

John F. Seymotje called the assemblage to order. He said : We 
have the pleasure of having with us Lieutenant-Governor Dorsueimer, 
Major Douglas Campbell, Judge Bacon and Ellis II. Egberts, who 
will address us on this occasion. Before the speaking, however, he 
read a number of letters received from gentlemen invited to be pres- 
ent, but who have been unable to attend. Among these were letters 
from RuTUEKFoRD B. Hayes, President, and William A. Wheeler, 
Vice-President of the United States, Secretary Evajkts, Ex-Secretary 
Fish, Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, William Cullen Bryant, Gov. 
Lucius Robinson, Benson J. Lossing, the historian, Bayard Taylor, 
and other prominent gentlemen. At the conclusion of the reading, 
Mr. Seymour introduced Hon. William Doksheimer, Lieutenant- 
Governor of the State. 



72 Centennial Celebrations. 



ADDEESS OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOE DOESHEIMER. 

Mil. PiiEsiDENT AND Fellow CITIZENS I You have assembled liere not only to 
celebrate a noted historical event, but also to indulge the pride vv'hich all men feel 
in the honorable acts of their ancestors. The victory at Oriskany was the con- 
tribution which the German emigrants made to American independence. We are 
too apt to forget that all nations have a share in our country's history. An Ital- 
ian sailing under the Spanish tiag discovered the new world, and another Italian 
gave liis name to the continent. A Frenchman discovered the St. Lawrence, 
while a Frenchman and a Spaniard were the first to see, the one the southern and 
the' other the northern reaches of the Mississippi. A Portuguese, on his way 
around the world, disclosed the outlines of South America. Spanish eyes first 
beheld the Pacific, an Englishman first sailed along the dreary coast of Labrador, 
and an Englishman sailing under the Dutch flag first came into the Bay of 
New York, and gave his name to the picturesque river into which the waters 
which shine before our eyes will flow on their way to the sea. The enterprise of 
all the nations gave America to the world. 

The settlement of the continent was the work of all the great European nations. 
France, with characteristic energy, took possession of the Canadas and pushed 
her colonies so vigorously, as to make it probable she would control the conti- 
nent. Spain held Florida, the mouths of the Mississippi and most of the vast 
region which lies to the west of that river. England laid claim to Virginia, 
Massachusetts, the Carolinas and Pennsylvania, and Holland planted a colony in 
the valley of the Hudson. 

Those who came here were not greatly influenced by the causes of emigration 
at present. It was not poverty which forced the first settlers to come. Europe 
had been for generations given over to wars which had their origin in religious 
hate, and which were continued for various dynastic and political considerations. 
Puritans fled from the tyranny of Charles, and Huguenots from the tyranny of 
Louis. Dissenters came here to escape Episcopalian intolerance, and non-con- 
formists to escape Presbyterian persecution; Round Heads and Cavaliers, Quakers 
and Catholics; the representatives of all parties and sects. 

Among the most notable instances of cruelty in war during the seventeenth 
century was the desolation of the Palatinate by the armies of Louis XIV. The 
traveler who walks through the ruined castle at Heidelberg beholds, perhaps, the 
only witness now remaining of the rapacity with which the French king laid 
waste not only the palace of the monarch, but also the cottage of the peasant. 
Driven from their homes, some of the people of the Palatinate came to America, 
and settled in the valley of the Mohawk, to which they may have been led 
because of its resemblance to their own land of beautiful rivers and fertile valleys. 
But, I have been told that they were induced by the Dutch magnates to settle on 
the Mohawk, because it was in the Indian country, and they would protect the 
other colonies to the east, and that they were best suited to such a service because 
they were accustomed to have tlieir homes pillaged and burned. From whatever 
cause, they settled here on the outposts. They were well placed ; for here they 
dealt the first blow at the most formidable expedition which England organized 
fur the conquest of the colonies. 



Oriskany. 73 

I will not weary you by jjoing into a detailed account of the battle. But, you 
will []aidoii ine, if I indulge a kinsnuin's pride, and dwell fur a uionient upon the 
eonlliit wliieli raged here a century ago. 

Herkimer anil his men were ambuscaded liy Ihi' Indians. That was a favorite 
device in Indian warfare. It was in such a conflict that J3raddock fell, and the 
young Wa.shingtoii won his first laurels. It had generally been successful. But 
it did not succeed with those sturdy Germans. True, that, then as alway.s, there 
were some who, irresolute and cowardly, took to flight. But most, although they 
were sim|)le farmers without military training, not only stood their ground, but 
(juickly adapted themselves to the occasion, adopted the Indian tactics, posted 
lhen;selves behind trees, and fought with such skill and endurance all tlirough 
the summer day, that the Indians, to use the language of one of their chiefs, had 
enough and did not want "to fight Dutch Yankee any more." 

You Germans who hear me, you have alnmdant reason for pride. No more 
important battle has ever been fought in this country. Nowhere, with an oppor- 
tunity for escape, have troops endured so severe a loss; never has a battle which 
began with disaster been turned into victory more complete. And this was a 
German fight. The words of warning and encoiu-agement, the exclamations of 
passion and of pain, the shouts of Ijattle and of victory, the commands which the 
womided Herkimer spoke, and the prayers of the dying, were in the German 
language. I say you may well be proud of it, for it is the contribution which 
men of your race liave made to the work of American independence. 

Perhaps, at some time, the deeds of American valor will be celebrated, as the 
military glories of France are celebrated in the stately galleries of Versailles, and 
certainly no more imjjressive scene will be offered to the artist's pencil than Her- 
kimer wounded to the death, seated upon his saddle which he had placed upon 
the ground, and smoking his pipe throughout all that dreadful fray. 

The course of liistory is often determined by the conduct of one man. Who 
can tell how much that simple hero, by his example of calmness in the midst of 
turbulence and disorder, contributed to the victory ? And, therefore, who can 
estimate the debt which the country owes to him? 

My fellow citizens, I have to-day traveled through the valley of the Mohawk, 
from near its mouth to this place where the river gathers the streamlets from the 
hills, and surely a fairer scene never rested under human eyes. The land stood 
in the mature beauty of the summer, and the harvest crowded the broad levels 
like a mighty host. 

These, the crops which rover your fields, are the creations of your own hands 
working in harmony with natural laws. But, do not forget that your other and 
more valuable posses.sions, the prizes which are held out to honorable ambition, 
freedom of thought and wor.ship, the peace which here covers the sleep of inno- 
cence and the helplessness of infancy and age — -all these, the priceless pos- 
sessions of a free and enlightened community, are also the creations of your own 
hands working in harmony with liberty and with law. To establish these for you 
Herkimer and his men strove here a hundred years ago. Be sure they will not 
!)(■ maintained for yourselves nor transmitted to your children without sacrifice 
and battle. In some way you will be compelled to nuike good your title to this 
great inheritance. We will liope thai when the peril shall come to you, and the 
sudden foe shall spring from his ambush, you may do your duty as well as they 
did theirs. 

10 



74 Centennial Celebrations. 

At the conclusion of Goveniur Doksheimee's speech three cheers 
were called for and heartily given. 

Mr. John F. Seymouk — I now have the honor of introducing one 
who might better introduce me, Judge Bacon. 



ADDRESS OF HON. W. J. BACON. 

• 
The thoughtful — and more especially the reverent student of history, cannot 
fail to have been often struck, if not indeed profoundly impressed, by the evi- 
dence presented of the power of an unseen, but most potent hand in human 
affairs. That interposition is sometimes exhibited on a scale of such wide and 
magnificent proportions, so manifestly controlling great events, as not only to 
arrest observation, but to compel belief. Sometimes it sets in operation a succes- 
sion of minute causes, none of them having in themselves apparently any poten- 
tial influence, but in theii' combination, succession and outcome, conducting to 
results that affect the destinies of men and nations for uncounted ages. 

It is, indeed, quite reasonable to look for and anticipate such results. If, as we 
are taught by the most infallible authority, " There's a Providence in the fall of a 
sparrow," we should most naturally expect that influences and forces, that are to 
affect the highest order of beings that inhabit our planet, would be under the 
same guiding hand that directed the flight, and witnessed the fall of the bird that 
but for a sliort season floated in the atmosphere above us. The antecedents of far- 
reaching results may, as has been suggested, be of the most humble and obscure 
character, and have apparently little relevancy to what followed in their train, or 
was affected by them ; for we are taught, and taught truly, by the great dramatist, 
that "There's economy, even in heaven." But we have only to put ourselves 
teachably in the attitude of disciples in the school of history, and reverently sit 
at the feet of our master, to be taught the wonderful lessons that reach to depths 
that man's mere hair-line wisdom never could have fathomed. 

It was, apparently, a small thing, most insignificant, indeed, when measured 
against the overwhelming scale of the opposing forces, that three hundred men 
should have planted themselves in the pass of Thermopylae, to dispute the passage 
of the vast army of the Persian invaders. But wliat an illustrious example it was, 
not to Greece only in her crucial horn-, but to "all nations and people that on 
earth do dwell," or ever will in the ages to come, of the power of self-sacrifice 
that an exalted patriotism inspires. How much it conduced to prove that strength 
is not always, and necessarily in battalions though they be in numbers like the 
sands of the sea, if they be poorly led, and have not the inspiration that possesses 

those who 

" Strike for theiraltars and their flres; 
Strike for the preen graves of 'their sires, 
God and their native land." 

This very resistance, hopeless though it vi^as to prevent the ultimate advance of 
the serried hosts that confronted them, gave Greece time to rally and combine her 
forces, gave heart and hope to those whose expectations of successful resistance 
had almost perished before the struggle had even begun, and was a perpetual 



Oriskanv. 75 

rcmiiiiloi' tli:it no niiiii was to sliriiik from iiiiy peril, however great, to avoid no 
duty on liowevcr small a scale, and with whatever disparity in force it was to be 
Ijerfornied, and, above all, to be animated by the spirit that was ready to dare all 
things, to do all things, and then, if need be, cheerfully to die for the land it 
loved, and would to the last extremity defend. Poetry has canonized the mem- 
ory of the gallant " six hundred " that " rode into the mouth of hell," but history 
has immortalized on one of her best and brightest pages the " three hundred " that 
fell at tlie gateway of Greece; and what an invaluable lesson it was to the student 
of history of the great and unexpected results that stand connected with appar- 
ently trivial causes, and that what men chiefly have to do in this world is to per- 
form the duty right before them, and leave the result to be molded, fashioned 
and controlled by the hand that is ever on the helm through storm as well as sun- 
shine. 

The history of the world affords numberless instances of the truth I have been 
rather hinting at than elaborating, and it might be copiously illustrated in the 
whole narrative of the liistory of this continent from the time it first revealed 
itself to the straining eyes of the world-seeking Genoese to the days in which we 
live. But there was one incident occurring during the recent fratricidal struggle 
which we have, as we may trust, liappily and liopefully closed, which I may be 
pardoned for l_)riefly alluding to. I do it, you may well believe me, for no per- 
sonal or i)artisan jjurpuse, nor to awaken any sentiment, or revive any recollection 
that is not in j)erfect harmonj' with such a hallowed day as tliis, but simply to 
illustrate the ])rinciple of which I am speaking. 

The 8th of March, 1862, was a gloomy day in our national horizon. The sun 
in the heavens came forth, indeed, with brightness and beauty. But his beams 
fell u|)on the result of a work which silently and secretly had converted the beau- 
tiful Merrimac of our navy into the confederate ram Virginia, clad in iron armor 
which no ordinary artillery could penetrate, and a beak whose stroke no wooden ves- 
sel could resist. Steaming out of the harbor of Norfolk, she at once singled out 
lier victims, and ere the sun went down the Cumberland was beneath the waters 
of the James, the Congress had surrendered, and was in flames, the Minnesota 
was helplessly agroimd, and the rest of the fleet that flaunted the stars and stripes 
was put to ignominious flight, or sought safety under the protecting guns of fort- 
resses. Alarm filled the public mind. A new and unexpected source of danger 
was revealed. The Potomac would be ascended, and the Cajjitiil itself bombarded 
by hostile guns. Even the harbor of New York, it was conceived, might be 
sought by this new and destructive visitor whose coming nothing was prepared 
to resist. Swiftly the telegraph bore the news to all parts of the land, and all 
loyal faces gathered blackness. How shall this great peril be averted, and where 
shall we look for help, was the question on every lip. 

But with equal silence and secrecy another, and still more w'ondcrful, naval 
machine had been developed and constructed. She was completed at New York 
on the very day the Virginia received her armament, and while the latter was 
doing her work of destruction in the waters of the James, the Monitor was slowly 
steaming toward them, bent, however, upon an entirely different mission. Near 
the close of that day of terror lier commander heard the noise of distant artillery, 
and could faintly distinguish the .^houtsof victory Ixirne on the breeze. Instantly 
the cour.«e of the vessel was chanjjed, and in the night the gallant captain moored 
her luider the lee of the stranded Minnesota, rightly concluding that the morning 
would witness the return of the iron monster, to secure her remaining prey. Nor 



76 Centennial Celebrations. 

dill lu' judgi' :imiss, for with the sun PLime ngaiii the Virginia, unrler licr equally 
gallant captain. But as she approaclios her apparentl}' helpless victim, what 
strange apparition is this tlnit emerges from the side, and almost from beneath 
the Minnesota. "It is a Yankee cheese bo.K on a raft, " e.xclaims a bewildered 
spectator. The cheese box revolves, and an iron turret is disclosed, holding the 
most deadly and powerful missiles, which it discharges with such effect that 
ultimately the hitlierto invincible Virginia retires from the conflict, and seeks the 
harltor from which she never again emerged. I need say no more in regard to 
this most wonderful interpo.sition, than that it lifted a mountain's weight from 
off the heart of the nation, and impressed more deeply the lesson that all history 
lias been teaching us, that deliverance often comes as well from most unexpected 
quarters as from apparently insignificant agencies, and that, when the hour has 
struck for their ajipearaiicc, they come forth, under the Divine hand, to execute 
their mission. 

The application of these somewhat desultory remarks and illustrations to the 
subject of this day's commemoration, is so obvious as not to require or permit any 
extended discussion. Doubtless the men who, on the 6th of August, 1777, stood 
upou these hillsides, or were struggling through this ravine, were as little aware 
of the extent of the peril they were encountering, as of the magnitude of the 
issue that was suspended on the doings of that and the immediate following days. 
Whatever of suspicion, or even of prevision, was cherished or possessed by those 
who were then defending these outposts, they could not well have known that 
upon their successful resistance to the advance of St. Leger the entire result of 
the campaign of Burgoyne depended. They could not appreciate, and yet it was 
substantiall}' true, that they stood at the pass of a modern Thcrmopyhi?, for the 
little fortress of Stanwix was the gateway of the Mohawk Valley, down which 
St. Leger, with his conquering hordes, would have carried both fire and sword, 
and gathering strength, as all such unopposed raids invariably do, would have 
brought to Burgoyne a contingent most acceptable, as it was most needed. 
Whatever ignorance of the general plan of the enemy then prevailed, we now 
know with reasonable certainty that that plan contemplated the movement of Sir 
Henry Clinton, with all his available forces, up the Hudson from New York, the 
union of all the strength that St. Leger could bring from the West, and the com- 
bination of all these forces with Burgoyne, which, had it been achieved, would 
have constituted a strength of military power that all that Gates commanded, or 
could have summoned to his aid, would have been unable to resist. What might 
have happened had this combination been effected, no man is competent to tell; 
but this may with certainty be said, there would have been for us, at this day, no 
17th of October in which to celebrate the unconditional surrender of the strongest 
British army then in the field, and the first grand act of the Revolution would 
not have closed, as it did, in the triumph of the American army at Saratoga. 

Let us rejoice, then, that if it was not given to our fathers to see the far- 
reaching consequences of tlieir action, a heart was given them that beat truly and 
fervently for that infant liberty whose cradle they then were rocking, and a 
courage that survived the shock of apparent present defeat, ending in ultimate 
victory. In view, then, of these and other parallel incidents in our colonial, 
revolutionary and recent history, we may well take up the jubilant strain of 
Macaulay, when celebrating the triumph of Henry of Navarre, he sung, 



Oriskany. 77 

'* Now glory to Ilis holy name, from whom all t;h)ries are ; 
For our God hath crushed the tyrant — our God hath raised the slave. 
And mocked the counsels of tlie wise, and tlie valor of the brave." 

Citizens of Contnil New York, as we stand here to-tlav, and gaze around on 
the fair land our fathers won for us, can we fail to ask ourselves how different all 
this might have been had they faltered in duty? Of us it can as truthfully be 
said as of any people, •• the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have 
a goodly heritage." But how came it to be ours, and whence, under the blessing 
of Almighty God, was it derived? "Was it not from the toil and sweat and blood 
of a patriotic and self-sacrificing ancestry? 

And yet, no public and conspicuous memorial tells the passing traveler that 
here was fought one of the early battles of the Revolution ; a battle that, in its 
immediate effects, but much more in its remote influences and connections, had 
much to do with the question of independence then at stake, and with our pres- 
ent existence as a nation. Nothing has, as yet, been done to redeem the pledge 
given by the Continental Congress a hundi'ed years ago, tliat on this liistoric spot 
a monument should be erected, to perpetuate the memory of those who equally 
with them jierilled "life and fortune and sacred honor,"' in the cause of their 
country. Shall this sacred duty be still longer neglected? Let the Congress of 
the United States be reminded emphatically of that unperformed promise — the 
State of New York of its character as a trustee of the fund so sacredly and sol- 
emnly pledged, and adding its contribution, call upon the people who, to so large 
an extent, have been benefited and blessed by the result of those transactions we 
this day commemorate, to supplement the finid by a gift sufficient to erect upon 
this ground a column, which, if it shall not like that, which on Bunker Hill, meets 
the sun in his coming, whose head "the earliest beams of the morning shall gild, 
and parting day linger and play upon its summit," at least declare that on this 
day, one hundred years ago, something was done which the people of free, united 
and happy America, shall not willingly suffer to perish from the memory of those 
who now inhabit this pleasant land, or the generations th.at are to follow us. 

Mr. Seymour said lie thought it well at this point to give the people 
a Lint of the good things in store for them, and wonld hastily sketch 
the programme. First wo have Mr. Roberts. He will give you more 
facts about the liattle .mil its bearings than you have yet heard or 
thought of. Then we have some interesting remindei's of the day we 
celebrate — a snare drum taken from the enemj' near here, a musket 
which did duty <m this field, and other relics of like nature. Then 
we will show you Major Douglass Campbell, grandson of Col. Samuel 
Ciinphcll, who took part in the Battle of Oriskany. Besides we have 
a poem by Rev. Dr. Hhi.mkk. I now have the pleasure of introducing 
to you Mr. Eli.is II. Robkkts. 



Centennial Celebrations. 



HISTORICAL ADDEESS BY HON. ELLIS H. EOBEETS. 

The fault attaches to each of us, that the share of the valley of the Mohawk in 
the events which gave birth and form to the American republic, is not better 
understood. Our prosperity has been so steady and so broad that we have looked 
forward rather than backward. Other States, other parts of the country, have . 
been recalling the scenes which render their soil classic, and from the end of the 
century summoning back the men and the deeds of its beginning. A duty long 
neglected falls upon those whose lot is cast here in Central New York. These 
hills and these valleys in perennial eloquence proclaim the story of prowess and 
of activity. To translate from them, to gather the scattered threads of chronicle 
and tradition, to hold the place that has been fairly won by tlie Mohawk valley, 
is a task which has yet been only partially done. Some time or other it will be 
fulfilled, for achievements have a voice which mankind delights to hear. The 
privilege of this hour is to revive the memories and to celebrate the heroism of 
the Battle of Oriskany.' Without any thing of narrow local pride, with calm eye 
and steady judgment, not ashamed to praise where praise was earned, nor unwill- 
ing to admit weakness where weakness existed, let us recall that deadly fight, 
and measure its significance and its relations to the continental strife in which our 
republic was born. 

The Situation before the Ba'itle. 

For in the autumn of 1777, it was clear that the American colonies were fight- 
ing not for rights under the British crown, but for free and separate life. The 
passionate outbursts of 1775 had discharged their thunder and lightning. The 
guns of Lexington had echoed round the world. The brilliant truths of the 
Declaration had for a year blazed over the battle-fields of the infant nation. They 
had been hallowed by defeat; for Jlontgomcry had fallen at Quebec, Sullivan had 
met with disasters at Flatbush, the British occupied New York, and Washington 
had retreated through the Jerseys, abandoning Long Island and the Lower Hudson. 
Sir Guy Carleton had swept over Lake Champlain, fortunately not holding his 
conquest, and Burgoyne had captured the noted stronghold Ticonderoga. But 
the nation had also tasted victory. In the dread December days of 1776, Wash- 
ington had checked the tide of despair by his gallant assault at Trenton, and 
General Howe had been forced to concentrate his army against Philadelphia. 
Boston had seen its last of the soldiers of George the Third. Better than all, the 
States were everywhere asserting their vitality. Far ofi Tennessee, indignant at 
his use of Indians in war, had taken sides against the British king. Georgia had 
promised if Britain destroyed her towns, that her people would retii-e into the 
forests. The splendid defense of Fort Moultrie had saved Charleston, and proved 
South Carolina's zeal for the republic which it was afterward to assail. Virginia 
had furnished many of the civil leaders and the commander-in-chief to the 
republic, and had formally struck the British flag which liad floated over its State 
house. If jSIaryland hesitated. New Jersey joined hands with Pennsylvania and 
New York, and all New England had pledged itself to the contest which had 
begun. In New York as well as in other States, a State constitution had been 
adopted, and George Clinton had been inaugurated as Governor at the close of that 

1 See appendix, at close of the proceedings at Oriskany, for reference numbei-s from 1 to 18. 



Oriskany. 79 

disastrous July. The tido of Imttlo surged wildest in that critical summer in 
Northern New York. So in trying hours, the blood courses most swiftly at the 
heart. Great results were expected. The British fleet sailed up the Hudson. A 
British general, favorite of the muses, and in after years notably fortunate,* came 
down Lake Champlain to meet it at Albany. A column formidable in its ele- 
ments and led by a commander chosen by the king for the purpose, was to come 
from the north and west to complete the irresistible triad. Tory bands were ravag- 
ing the country southward in Schoharie and toward Kingston. Caus\ of alarm 
there was to the patriots; ground of confidence to the invaders. The war hung on 
the events in this field; and the scales of destiny inclined to the side of the king. 
The combatants had learned to understand each other. The burning words of 
Junius had long rankled in the British mind. Burke's magnificent plea for con- 
ciliation had borne no fruit. Chatham had two years before "rejoiced that 
America had resisted," and told the ministers they could not conquer America, 
and cripple as he was, he cried out : "I might as soon think of driving the 
colonies before me with this crutch; " but in the next spring he still clung to the 
hope that Britain would yet prevent separation. The insolence of Lord North 
had shattered the unanimity which Iving George boasted the Declaration had 
produced, and Fox had said if the dilemma were between conquering and 
abandoning America, he was for abandoning America. The citizens of Lon- 
don had appealed to the King to stop the "unnatural and unfortunate 
war." General Howe had already written to his brother (April 2, 1777,) 
"My hopes of terminating the war this year are vanished." In Britain, wise 
men had learned that the war would be desperate. In America the mag- 
nitude of the contest was felt. The alliance of France had been diligently 
sought, and LaFayette had arrived and been appointed major-general, while 
Kalb's offer had not been accepted. More than one general had been tried 
and found wanting in capacity, and the jealousies of the camp were working 
mischief. The financial burdens weighed heavily, and paper money had begun 
its downward career. Criticism of Washington's slowness was heard, and spec- 
ulators were making profit of the country's necessities. Bounties had been offered 
and the draft employed for raising troops. The loyalists were making the most 
of the hardships. The laud was rocking in " times that try men's souls. " The 
earlier part of the military campaign of 1777 had not been propitious to the patri- 
ots. The darkness rested especially on New York. Burgoyne had penetrated 
from Canada to the Hudson with a loss of only two hundred men. Clinton from 
the bay threatened to advance up the river, as he finally did, but fortunately not 
at the critical moment. The success of the corps moving inland from Oswego 
would shatter the center of the American position. 

The Object of the Campaign of 1777. 

The fight was for the continent. The strategy embraced the lines from Boston 
to the mouth of the Chesapeake, from Montreal even to Charleston. Jlontgom- 
ery's invasion of Canada, although St. John's and Montreal were taken, failed 
before Quebec, and the retreat of the American forces gave Burgoyne the base 
for his comprehensive campaign. Howe had been compelled to give up New 
England, which contained nearly one-third of the population and strength of the 

•General Hurgoyne before the war sat in Parliament. He was ngn'eeable and clever as a dra- 
matic poet. He became commander-in-chief of the Rritish forces in Ireland. 



80 Centennial Celebrations. 

colonies. The center of attack and of defense was the line of New Tork and 
Philadelphia. From their foothold at New York, on the one hand, and Montreal 
on the other, the British commanders aimed to grind the patriots of the Mohawk 
valley between the upper and nether mill-stones. The design was to cut New 
England off from the other States, and to seize the country between the Hudson 
and Lake Ontario as the vantage ground for sweeping and decisi\'e operations. 
This was the purpose of the wedge whicli Burgoyne sought to drive through the 
heart of the Union. In the beginning of that fateful August, Howe held all the 
country about New York, including the islands, and the Hudson up to Peekskill ; 
the British forces also commanded the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, and their 
southern shores, finding no opposition north of the Mohawk and Saratoga lake. 
The j\motion of Howe and Burgoyne would have rendered their armies masters 
of the key to the military position. This strip of country from the Highlands of 
the Hudson to the head of the Mohawk was the sole shield against such concen- 
tration of British power. Once lost it would become a sword to cut the patriots 
into fragments. They possessed it by no certain tenure. Two months later Gov- 
ernor Clinton and General Putnam lost their jjositions on the Hudson. Thus 
far Burgoyne's march had been one of conquest. His capture of Ticonderoga 
had startled the land. The frontier fort at the head of the Mohawk was to cost 
him the column on whose march he counted so much. 

FoKT Stanwix and its Garkison. 

For Stanwix (known in this campaign to the patriots as Fort Schuyler) was 
built in 1T58 against the French. The next year, *he Frendi met with those dis- 
asters which in 1760 gave Canada to the English, and thereafter Fort Stanwix 
served only for puiijoses of Indian trade, and as a protection to the carry between 
the Mohawk and Wood Creek. It had been a favorite place for peaceful meeting 
with tlie Indians. = Naturally it had lost its military strength, and when in April, 
1777, Colonel Gansevoort occupied it with the third regiment of the New York 
line, it was sadly out of repair. The plans for its reconstruction were yet in pro- 
gress when St. Leger appeared before it. But care and labor had been so effect- 
ual that the broken walls had been restored, and the ruins which the invader 
came to overrun had given place to defenses too strong for liis attack. Col. 
Peter Gansevoort, who was in command, was a native of Albany, now twenty- 
eight years of age. He had been with Montgomery before Quebec, and there 
won his rank as colonel. His conduct here was admirable. The courage of youth 
did not prevent on his part a wisdom worthy of much riper years. With him as 
Lieutenant-Colonel was Marinus AVillett, a native of New York city, aged thir- 
ty-seven, trained in the French war and the invasion of Canada, a dashing soldier, 
ready for any adventure, and shrewd in all the ways of border war. He had been 
in the expedition for which tiie fort had been erected, and now helped to save it. 
The Chaplain of the garrison was Samuel Kirkland, that sainted missionary to 
the Six Nations, to whom Central New York is so much indebted in every way. 
He was probably absent at tlie time, on service for the Congress, for he was 
trusted and employed on important missions by the patriot leaders. 

The garrison consisted of seven hundred and fifty men. It was composed of 
Gansovoort's own regiment, the Third New York, with two hundred men under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Mellon of Colonel Wesson's regiment of the Massachusetts 
line. Colonel Mellon had fortunately arrived with a convoy of boats filled with 
supplies, on the second of August, when the enemy's fires were already in sight 



Oriskany. 81 

onlj- a milt' away. This was tlio foiTc with wliii'li (iaiiscvoort was to liold tlie 
fort. 

The British advance appeared on tlie second of August. Tlie investiture was 
complete on the fourth, The siege was vigorously prosecuted on the fifth, but 
the cannon " had not the least effect on the sod-work of the fort," and "the roy- 
als had only the power of teazing." 

St. Leger's iNv.isioN. 

The corps before Port Stanwix was formidable in every element of military 
strength. The expedition with which it was charged was deemed by the war 
secretary at Whitehall of the first consequence, and it had received as marked 
attention as any army which King George ever let loose ujjon the colonists. For 
its leader Lieutenant-Colonel Barry St. Leger had been chosen by the king him- 
self, on Burgoyne's nomination. He deserved the confidence, if we judge by his 
advance, by his ])recautions, by his stratagem at Oriskany, and the conduct of the 
siege, up to the panic at the rumor that Arnold was coming. In the regular army 
of England he became an ensign in 17oG, and coming to America the next year 
he had served in the French war, and learned the habits of the Indians, and of 
border warfare. In some local sense, perhaps as commanding this corps, he was 
styled a brigadier. His regular rank was Lieutenant-Colonel of the thii-ty-fourth 
regiment. In those days of trained soldiers it was a marked distinction to be 
chosen to select an independent coi-ps on important service. A wise commander, 
fitted for border war, his order of march bespeaks him. Skillful in affairs, and 
scholarly in accomplishments, his writings prove him. Prompt, tenacious, fertile 
in resources, attentive to detail, while master of the whole plan, he would not fail 
where another could have won. Inferior to St. Leger in rank, but superior to 
him in natural powers and personal magnetism, was Joseph Brant — Thayendan- 
egea — chief of the Jlohawks. He had been active in arraying tlie Six Nations on 
the side of King George, and only the Oneidas and Tuscaroras had refused to 
follow his lead. He was now thirty-five years of age; in figure the ideal Indian, 
tall and spare and lithe and quick ; with all the genius of his tribe, and the train- 
ing gained in Connecticut schools, and in the familj' of Sir William Johnson ; 
he had been a lion in London, and flattered at British head-quarters in Montreal. 
Among the Indians he was pre-eminent, and in any circle he would have been 
conspicuous. 

As St. Leger represented the regular army of King George, and Brant the 
Indian allies. Sir John Johnson led the regiments which had been organized from 
the settlers in the Mohawk Valley. He had inherited from his father. Sir AVilliam, 
the largest estate held on the continent by any individual, AVilliam Penn excepted. 
He had early taken sides with the king against the colonists, and having entered 
into a compact with the patriots to preserve peace and remain at Johnstown, he 
had violated his promise, and fled to Canada. He came now with a sense of per- 
sonal wrong, to recover his possessions and to resume the almost royal sway which 
he had exercised. He at this time held a commission as colonel in the British 
army, to raise and command forces raised among' the royalists of the valley. 
Besides these was Butler — John Butler, a brother-in-law of Johnson; lieutenant- 
colonel by rank, rich and influential in the valley, familiar with the Indians and 
a favorite with them, shrewd and daring and savage, already the father of that 
son Walter, who was to be the scourge of the settlers, and \\ ith him to render 
11 



82 Centennial Celebrations. 

ferocious and bloody tlie border war. He came from Niagara, and was now in 
command of tory rangers. 

The forces were like the leaders. It has been the custom to represent St. 
Leger's array as a ''motley crowd." On the contrary it was a picked force, 
especially designated by orders from head-quarters in Britain. ■• He enumerates his 
"artillery, the thirty-fourth and the King's regiment, with the Hessian riflemen 
and the whole corps of Indians," with him, while his advance, consisting of a 
detachment under Lieutenant Bird, had gone before, and "the rest of the army, 
led by Sir John Johnson," was a day's march in the rear. Johnson's whole regi- 
ment* was with him, together witli Butler's tory rangers, with at least one com- 
pany of Canadians.t The country from Schoharie, westward, had been scoured 
of royalists to add to this column. For such an expedition, the force could not 
have been better chosen. The pet name of the "King's regiment " is significant. 
The artillery was such as could be carried by boat, and adapted to the sort of war 
before it. It liad been especially designated from Whitehall. J The Hanau Chas- 
seurs were trained and skillful soldiers. The Indians were the terror of the land. 
The Si.\ Nations had joined the e.xijedition in full force § except the Oneidus and 
the Tuscaroras. With the latter tribes the influence of Samuel Kirkland had 
overborne that of the Johnsons, and the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras were by their 
peaceful attitude more than by hostility useful to Congress to the end.' || The 
statement "i that two thousand Canadians accompanied St. Leger as axemen is no 
doubt an exaggeration; but, exclusive of such helpers and of non-combatants, the 
corps counted not less than seventeen hundred figliting men.** King George could 
not then have sent a column better fitted for its task, or better equipped, or abler 
led, or more intent on achieving all that was imposed upon it. Leaving Montreal, 
it started on the nineteenth of July from Buck Island, its rendezvous at the 
entrance of Lake Ontario. It had reached Fort Stanwix without the loss of a 
man, as if on a summer's picnic. It had come through in good season. Its chief 
never doubted that he would make quick work with tlie Fort. He had even 
cautioned Lieutenant Bird who led the advance, lest he should risk the seizure 
with his unaided detachment. When his full force appeared, his faith was sure 
that the fort would ' 'fall without a single shot. " tt So confident was he that he sent 
a dispatch to Burgoyne on the fifth of August, assuring him that the fort would 
be his directly, and they would speedily meet as victors at Albany. Jf General 
Schuyler had in an official letter expressed a like fear.' 

•British Annual Register for 1877. See the fourteenth section of Appendix to this address. 

t Impartial History, (London, 1780, p. 499.) 

i Burgoyne's State of the E.xpedition, p. 67, and section fourth of Appendix. 

§ Colonel Guj' Johnson wrote, November 11, 1777, to Lord Germain, " The greater part of those 
from the Six Nations with my officers in that country, joined General St. Leger's trooqs and Sir 
John Johnson's provincials, and were principally concerned in tlie action near Fort Stanwix." 
Colonial History of New York, vol.8, p. 727. This was in accordance with a dispatch from Brant 
to Sir Gnv, in June or July, that the '• Six Nations were all in readiness (the Oneidas excepted,) 
and all determined, as they expressed it, to act as one man." Colonial History, vol. 8, p. 713. 

II William Tracy, in his lectures, p. 14, gives much credit for this result to James Dean. See Ap- 
pendix, for a characteristic letter of Rev. Samuel Kirkland. 

t Dawson's Battles of the United States. 

•* Gordon's History, (London. 1787) vol. 2, p. 477, says St. Leger's "whole force did not probably 
exceed 800 men : " p.' 529, he credits him with " 700 Indian warriors." This is loose talk. Presi- 
dent Dwight (Travels, vol. 3, p. 191) who visited Fort Stanwix in 1799, places the number from 
I, ,500 to 1.800. 

tt Colonel Claus had so promised the Indians. Campbell's Annals of Tryon county, p. 68. Upon 
Arnold's approach, when St. Leger urged the Indians to stay, the chiefs replied: "When we 
marched down, j-on told us there would be no fighting for us Indians; we might go down and 
smoke our pipes; but now a number of our warriors have been killed, and you mean to sacrifice 
us." Thacher's Military Journal, p. 90. 

ttLossing's Field Book of the Revolution, vol. 1, p. 243. 



Oriskany. 83 



The Patriot Risino rx Trvon CorxTT. 

St. Leger was therefore surprised as well as anno3-crl by the news that the 
settlers on the Jlohawk had been aroused, and were marching in luiste to relieve 
the fort. He found that his path to join Burgoyne was to be contested. He 
watched by skillful scouts the gathering of the patriots; their quick and some- 
what irregular assembling; he knew of their marcli from Fort Dayton, and their 
halt at Oriskany. Brant* told him that they advanced, as brave, untrained 
militia, without throwing out skirmishers, and with Indian guile the Mohawk 
chose the pa.ss in which an ambush should be set for them. The British com- 
mander guarded the way for several miles from his position by scouts within 
speaking distance of each other. He knew the importance of his movement, and 
he was guilty of no neglect. 

TiiE Ambuscade. 

From his camp at Fort Stanwix St. Leger saw all, and directed all. Sir .John 
Johnson^ led the force thrown out to meet the patriots, with Butler as his second, 
but Brant was its controlling head. The Indians were most numerous; "the 
whole coqjs," a "large body," St. Leger testifies. And with the Indians he 
reports were "some troops." The presence of Johnson, and of Butler, as well 
as of Claus and Watts, of Captains Wilson, Hare and JIcDonald, t the chief 
royalists of the valley, proves that their followers were in the fight. Butler J 
refers to the New Yorkers whom we know as Johnson's Greens, and the Ran- 
gers, as in the engagement in large numbers. St. Leger was under the absolute 
necessity of preventing the patriot force from attacking him successfully. He 
could not do less than send every available man out to meet it. Quite certainly 
the choicest of the army were taken from the dull duty of the siege for this criti- 
cal operation. They left camp at night and lay above and around the ravine at 
Oriskany, in the early morning of the sixth of August. They numbered not less 
than twelve hundred men under chosen cover. 

General Herkimer's Rally. 

The coming of St. Leger had been known in the valley for weeks. Burgoyne 
had left Montreal in June, and the expedition by way of Lake Ontario, as the' ex- 
perience of a hundred years prophesied, would respond to his advance. Colonel 
Gansevoort had appealed to the Committee of Safety for Tryon county, for help. 
Its chairman was Nicholas Herchkeimer, (known to us as Herkimer, j who had 
been appointed a brigadier-general by Congress in the preceding autumn. § His 
family was large, and it was divided in the contest. A brother was captain with 
Sir John Joluison, and a brother-in-law was one of the chief of the loyalists. He 
was now forty-eight years of age,] short, slender, of dark complexion, with black 
hair and bright eyes. I He had German pluck and leadership, but he had also 

• The information came on the fifth from Brunt's sister, who was a mistress of Sir William 
Johnson. See Claus' Letter in the Appendix. 

t Captain McDonald, of Johnson's Cireens, and Captains Wilson and Hare of the Hangers, are 
reported by Colonel Butler amonR the killed. Other captains must have been on the Held. While 
the title was perhaps loosely used, it signifies prominence, and some followers. 

J Stone's Life of Brant, p. S43. 

§ Stone's Life of Brant, vol 1, p. 181. His commission to this rank bv the Xew York conven- 
tion, bearing date September 5. 1776, is in the possession of the Oneida Historical Society, at 
Uticii. 

I Benton's Herkimer county, p. IfiS. 

1 Newspaper report of tradition in the Wagner family. 



84 Centennial Celebrations. 

aui-man caution and ilolibcration. He I'cn-osaw the aangrr, and had given warn- 
ing to General Schuyler at Albany. On the seventeenth of July he had issued 
a proclamation, announcing that the enemy, two thousand strong, was at Oswego, 
and that as soon as he should approach, every male person being in health, and 
between sixteen and sixty years of age, should immediately be ready to march 
against him. Tryou county luid strong appeals for help also from Cherry Valley 
and Unadilla; General Herkimer had been southward at the close of June to 
check operations of the tories and Indians under Brant; and Frederick Sam- 
mons had been sent on a scouting expedition to the Black river country, to test 
the rumors that an invasion from Canada was to be made from that direction.* 
Tile danger from these directions delayed and obstructed recruiting for the column 
against St. I;egcr. Tlie stress was great, and Herkimer was bound to keep 
watch south and north as well as west. He waited only to learn where need was 
greatest, and he went thitl\er. On the thirtieth of July, a letter from Thomas 
Spencer, a half-breed Oneida, read on its way to General Schuyler, made 
known the advance of St. Leger. Herkimer's order was promptly issued,! and 
soon brought in eight hundred men. They were nearly all by blood Germans and 
low Dutch, with a few of other nationalities. The roster,'^ so far as can now be 
collected, indicates the presence of persons of English, Scotch, Irish, "Welsh, and 
French blood, but these are exceptions, and the majority of the force was beyond 
question German. They gathered from their farms and clearings, carrying their 
equipments with them. They met at Fort Dayton, near the mouth of the West 
Canada Creek. This post was held at the time by a part of Colonel Wesson's 
■Massachusetts regiment. J also represented in the garrison at Fort Stanwix. Tlie 
little army was divided into four regiments or battalions. The first, which Her- 
kimer had once commanded, was now led by Colonel Ebenezer Cox, and was 
from the district of Canajoharie; of the second, from Palatine, Jacob Klock was 
colonel ; the third was under Colonel Frederick Visscher, and came from 
^lohawk; tlie fourth, gathered from German Flats and KingsUind, Peter Bel- 
linger eommanded.§ '* 

General Herkimer's Adv.vnce. 

Counsels were divided whether they should await further accessions, or hasten 
to Fort Stanwix. Prudence promjited delay. St. Leger's force was more than 
double that of Herkimer; it might be divided, and while one-half occupied the 
])atriot column, the Indians under tory lead might hurry down the valley, gather- 
ing reinforcements while they ravaged tlic homes of the patriots. Tlie blow 
might come from Unadilla, where Brant had been as late as the early part of that 
very July. Herkimer, !it Fort Dayton, was in position to turn in either direc- 
tion. But tlic way of the iMohawk was the natural and traditional war-path. 
The patriots looked to Fort Stanwix as their defense. They started on the fourth, 
crossed the Jlohawk where is now Utica, and reached Whitestown on the fifth. 
Here it was proViably that a band of Oneida Indians joined the column. From 
this point or before ilerkimer sent an express to Colonel Gansevoort arranging for 

• The narrative of this e.'cpedition is in the hands of Colonel Frederick Sammons of Fonda, and 
the writer has been kindly penuitted to peruse tlie original manuscript. 

+ All authorities agree that on iveeipt of Spencer's letter. Herkimer acted vigoniuslj-. Stone's 
Brant, p. a'i3; Aiuial.'! of Tryon county, p 'S; Ramsey's History of the Revolution (I7S9\ vol. 3, 
p 38, Raj's he '• collected " liis men by "the third of August; Lossing's Field-Book, vol. 1, p. 343 ; 
Benton's History of Herkimer county, p. TG. 

t Benton's Herkimer county, p. SO. 

§ Calendar of New York Manuscripts, vol. 1, p. 133 (revised). 



Okiskany. 85 

co-operation. He was to move forward wlicn three cannon signaled tluit aid was 
ready. The signal was not heard; the messenger had been delayed. His chief 
advisers, including Colonel Cox and Paris, the latter a member of the Committee 
of Safety, urged quicker movements. Fort Stanwix might fall, wliile tiiey were 
delaying, and the foe could then turn upon them. Herkimer was taunted as a 
coward and a tory. His German phlegm was stirred. He warned his impatient 
advisers that they would be the tirst in the face of the enemy to flee. He gave 
the order •' march on ! " Apprised of the ambuscade, his courage which had been 
assailed prevented the necessary iirecautious. 

The Fight. 

He led his little band on. H he had before been cautious, now lie was auda- 
cious. His course lay on the south side of the river, avoiding its bends, where 
the country loses the general level which the rude road sought to follow, when 
it could be found. For three or four miles hills rose upon valleys, with occa- 
sional gullcys. The trickling sjjrings and the spring freshets had cut more than 
one ravine where even in the summer, the water still moistened the earth. These 
run toward the river, from southerly toward the north. Corduroy roads had 
been constructed over the marshes, for this was the line of such travel as sought 
Fort Stanwix and the river otherwise than by boat. Herkimer had come to one 
of the deepest of these ravines, ten or twelve rods wide, running narrower up to 
the hills at the south, and broadening toward the Mohawk into the flat bottom 
land. AV'here the forests were thick, where the rude roadway ran down into the 
marsh, and the ravine closed like a pocket, he pressed his way. Not in soldierly 
order, not watching against the enemy, but in rough haste, the eight hundred 
marched. They reached the ravine at ten in the morning. The advance had 
gained the higher ground. Then as so often, the woods became alive. Black 
eyes flashed from behind every tree. Rifles blazed from a thousand unexpected 
coverts. The Indians rushed out hatchet in hand, decked in paint and feathers. 
The brave band was checked. It was cut in two. The assailants aimed first of 
all to seize the supply train. Colonel Visscher, who commanded its rear-guard, 
showed his courage before and aftei-* and doubtless fought well here, as the best 
informed descendants of other heroes of the battle believe. But his regiment, 
driven northward toward the rivei', was cut up or in gi-eat part captured with 
the supplies and ammunition. In the ravine and just west of it, Herkimer rallied 
those who stood with him. Back to back, .shoulder to shoulder, they faced the 
foe. AVhcre shelter could be had two stood together, so that one might fire while 
the other loaded. Often the fight grew closer, and the knife ended the personal 
contest. Eye to eye, hand to hand, this was a fight of men. Nei-ve and brawn 
and muscle were the price of life. Rifle and knife, spear and tomahawk, were 
the only weapons, or the clubbed butt of the rifle. It was not a test of science, 
not a weighing of enginery, not a measure of caliber nor an exhibition of choicest 
mechanism. Jlcn stood against death, and death struck at them with the sim- 
plest implements. Homer sings of chariots and shields. Here were no such helps, 
no such defenses. Forts or earthworks, barricades or abattis, there were none. 
The British force had chosen its ground. Two to one it must have been against 
the band which stood and fought in that ]iass, forever glorious. Herkimer, early 
wounded and his horse shot under him, sat on his saddle beneath a beech tree, 

* Stone's Life ot Brant, vol. 2, pp. 74, T5. 



86 Centennial Celebrations 

just where the hill rises at the west a little north of the center of the ravine, 
calmly smokiug a pipe while ordering the battle. He was urged to retire from so 
much danger; his replj' is the eloquence of a hero: " I will face the enemy." 

The gi'ound tells the story of the fight. General Herkimer was with the advance, 
which had crossed the ravine. His column stretched out for nearly half a mile. 
Its head was a hundred rods or more west of the ravine, his rear-guard reached 
as far east of it. The firing began from the hills into the gulf. Herkimer closed 
his line on its center, and in reaching that point his white horse was shot under 
him. The flag-staS to-day on the hill marks his jjosition. Then, as to-day, the 
hills curved like a cimeter, from the west to the east on the north side of the 
river. Fort Stanwix could not be seen, but it lay in the plain just beyond the gap 
in the hills, six miles distant. The Mohawk, from the mouth of the Oriskany, 
curves northward, so that here it is as far away in a right line, perhaps a mile in 
each case. The bottoms were marshy, as they yet are where the trees exclude the 
sun. Now the New York Central Railroad and the Erie Canal mark the generjil 
direction of the march of the patriots from their starting-place hither. Then 
forests of beech and birch and maple and hemlock covered the land where now 
orchards and rich meadows extend, and grain-fields are ripening for the harvest. 
Even the forests are gone, and the Mohawk and the hills and the ravine and 
" Battle Brook," are the sole witnesses to confirm the iraditious which have come 
down to us. The elms which fling their plumes to the sky are young successors 
to the knightly warriors who were once masters liere. Through the forests Her- 
kimer, from his elevation, could catch the general outlines of the battle. Some 
of his advance had fallen at the farthest point to which they had marched. Upon 
their left the enemy had appeared in force, and liad closed up from the south- 
ward, and on the east side of the ravine. The patriots had been pushed to the 
north side of the road, away from the line which the corduroy still marks in the 
ravine, and those who fled sought the river. Skeletons have been found in the 
smaller ravine about two hundred rods west, and at the mouth of the Oriskany, 
an extent of a mile and a half; and gun-barrels and other relics along the line of 
the Erie Canal, and down toward the river. These are witnesses of the limits of 
the battle. They mark the center here. Here gathered the brave militia without 
uniforms, in the garb of farmers, for their firesides and their liomes, and the 
republic just born which was to be. Against them here, in the ravine, pursuing 
and capturing the rear-guard on the east of the ravine or down in it, and thence 
toward the river, rushed from the forests, uniformed and well equipjjed, Johnson's 
Greens, in their gay color, the German Chasseurs, Europe's best soldiers, with 
picked men of British and Canadian regiments, and the Indian warriors decked 
in the equipments with which they made war brilliant. Some of this scene Her- 
kimer saw ; some of it extent of space and thickness of forest hid from his eye. 
But here he faced the enemy, and here he ordered the battle. 

During the carnage a storm of wind and rain and lightning brought a respite. 
Old men pieserve the tradition that in the path by which the enemy came a 
broad windfall was cut, and was seen for long years afterward. The elements 
caused only a short lull. In came at the thick of the strife a detachment of 
Johnson's Greens; and they sought to appear reinforcements for the patriots. 
They paid dearly for the fraud, for thirty were quickly killed. Captain Gardenier 
slew three with his spear, one after the other.* Captain Dillenback, assailed by 

* Stone's Life of Brant, vol. 1, pp. 339, »tO. 



Oriskany 87 

three, brained one, shot tlie second and bayoneted the third. Henry Tliompson 
grew faiut with liungcr, sat down on the body of a dead soldier, ate hia Uiiicli, 
and refreshed, resumed the tight. William Mercklcy, mortally wounded, to a 
friend oflering to assist him, said : " Take eare of your>ielf, leave me to my fate." * 
Such men could not be whipped. The Indians, finding they were losing many, 
became suspicious that their allies wished to destroy them, and fired on tliem, 
giving unoxi)ected aid to the patiiot band.t Tradition relates that an Oneida 
maid, only fifteen yeare old, daughter of a chief, fought on the side of the 
patriots, firing her rifle, and shouting her battle cry.| The Indians raised the cry 
of retreat, "Oonah! Oonah!" Johnson heard the firing of a sortie from the 
fort. The British fell back, after five hours of desperate fight.§ Herkimer and 
his gallant men held the ground. 

The Sortie. 

The sortie from Fort Stanwix, which Herkimer expected, was made as soon as 
his messengers arrived. They were delayed, and yet got through at a critical 
moment. Colonel AVillett made a sally at the head of two hundred and fifty men, 
totally routed two of the enemy's encampments, and captured tlieir contents, 
including five British flags. The exploit did not cost a single patriot life, while 
at least six of the enemy were killed and four made prisoners. It aided to force 
the British retreat from Oriskany. The captured flags were floated beneath the 
stars and stripes, fashioned in the fort from cloaks and shirts; and here for the 
first time the flag of the republic was i-aised in victory over British colors. |j 

The Losses. 

The slaughter at Oriskany was terrible. St. Leger claims that four hundred of 
Herkimer's men were killed and two hundred captured, leaving only two hundred 
to escape. No such number of prisoners was ever accounted for. The Americans 
admitted two hundred killed, one-fourth of the whole army. St. Leger places 
the number of Indians killed at thirty, and the like number wounded, including 
favorite chiefs and confidential warriors. It was doubtless greater, for the Sene- 
cas alone lost thirty-six killed, and in all the tribes twice as many must have been 
killed. St. Leger makes no account of any of his whites killed or vi'oundcd. 
Butler, IT however, mentions of New Yorkers (Johnson's Greens) killed. Captain 
McDonald; Captain Watts dangerously wounded and one subaltern. Of the 
tory Rangers Captains Wilson and Hare (their chiefs after Butler) were killed. 

•Simms' Schoharie, pp. 2G3, 3I>4. 

t President Dwiplit (Travels, vol. .3, p. 19.3), who, in 1799, heard the stories of persons living near 
the l>attIe-fif'M, relates this incident. 

t Newspaper report of a tradition in the family of George Wagner, a survivor. 

S Dr. Hoses Younglove, who was taken prisoner at the battle, fi.xes the time: 

'■ Then we with ei]nal fury joined the fight 
Kre Phcebus ganiefl his" full meridian height. 
"Nor ceased the horrors of the bloofly fray. 
Till he had journeyed half his eveniiig way. " 

Appendix to Campbell's Annals of Tryon county., p. 32. 

I LoBsing, Field-llook, vol 1. p. 342, says the blue was taken from a camlet cloak of Captain 
Swartwoiii. and llii' while from cotton shirts General .Schuyler Hamilton, in the Historical 
Magazine, ffir .lulv, ISTT, p. ViO, states, on the authority of hia grandmother, a daughter of General 
Philip Schujli^r, that the stripes were made from a scarlet cloak belonging to one of the women 
of the garrison. Willett says the blue cloak had been captured from the British at Peek.skill; 
Narrative, p 42 All that relates to this Hag, the first ever lifting the stars and stripes in battle 
and in victory, has lasting interest. 

H Claus agrees substantially, and speaks of two or three privates killed. Letter to Secretory 
Knox, in London; New York Colonial History, vol. 8, p. 721; see Appendix to this Address. 



88 Centennial Celebeations. 

With such loss of officers, the deatli list of privates must have been considerable. 
The Greens alone lost thirty. In Britain it was believed as many of tlie British 
were killed by the Indians as by the militia.* The loss of British and Indians 
must have approached a hundred and fifty killed. Eye-witnesses were found who 
estimated it as great as that of the Americans.! The patriot dead included 
Colonel Co.x, and his Lientenaut-Colonel Hunt, Majors Eisenlord, Van Slyck, 
Klapsattle and Blevin; and Captains Diefendorf, Crouse, Bowman, Dillenback, 
Davis, Pettingill, Helmer, Graves and Fo.x ; with no less than four members of 
the Ti-yon county Committee of Safety, who were present as volunteers. They 
were Isaac Paris, Samuel Billington, John D3'gert and Jacob Snell. Spencer, the 
Oneida, who gave the warning to the patriots, was also among the killed. The 
heads of the patriot organization in the valley were swept off. Herkimer's glory 
is that out of such slaughter he snatched the substance of victory. In no other 
battle of the revolution did the ratio of deaths rise so high. At Waterloo, the 
French loss was not in so large a ratio to the number engaged, as was Herldmer's 
at Oriskany ; nor did the allies siiffer as much on that bloody field. 

Frightful barbarities were wreaked on the bodies of the dead, and on the 
prisoners who fell into the hands of the Indians. The patriots held the field at 
tlie close of the fight, and were able to carry off their woimded. Among those 
was the brave and sturdy Herkimer, who was taken on a litter of boughs to his 
home, and, after suffering the amputation of his leg, died on the sixteenth of 
August like a Christian hero. Of the dead some at least lay unburied until 
eighteen days later. Arnold's column rendered to them that last service. | 

After the battle, Colonel Samuel Campbell, § afterward conspicuous in Otsego 
county, became senior officer, and organized the shattered patriots, leading tliem 
in good order back to Port Dayton. The night of the fight they bivouacked at 
Utica. Terrible as their losses had been, only sixteen days later Governor Clinton 
positively ordered them to join General Arnold on his expedition with one-half 
of each regiment. •'' In his desperation. Sir John Johnson " proposed to march 
down the country with about two hundred men," and Claus would have added 
Indians ; || but St. Leger disapproved of the suggestion. Only a raid could have 
been possible." The fighting capacity of St. Leger's army was e.xhausted at Oris- 
kany, and he knew it. 

The Siege. IT 

St. Leger's advance was checked. His junction with Burgoyne was prevented. 
The rising of royalists in the valley did not occur. He claimed indeed the "com- 
pletest victory " at Oriskany. He notified the garrison that Burgoyne was victor- 
ious at Albany,, and demanded peremptorily the sulTender of the fort, threatening 
that prolonged resistance would result in general massacre at the hands of the 
enraged Indians. Johnson, Claus and Butler issued an address to the inhabitants 
of Tryon county, urging them to subniit, because " surrounded by victorious 
armies." Colonel Gansevoort treated the summons as an insult, and held his post 

* Gordon's History (London, 1787), vol. 3, p. 630. 

i A. D. Quackenboss who was in tlie fight so believed. Stone's-Brant, p. 401; Neilson's Burgoyne 
p.5B. 
t Jones' History of Oneida County, p. 361 ; Tracy's Lectures, p. 15. 

* Letter of his grandson. Hon. \V. \V. Campbell, in Utica Herald, July 27, 1877. 

II Claus' letter to Kno.x ; London Documents in Colonial History, vol. 8, p. "SI, and section seven- 
teenth of this Appendix. 

1 For a sketch of the siege of Fort Stanwix presented to Colonel Gansevoort by L. Fleury, and 
with a map of the village of Rome overlaid upon it, see Hough's Memoir of M. Pouchot. 



Oriskany. 89 

with stui'dy steadiness.* The people of the vallej" sided with Conjjress against 
the King. For sixteen days after Oriskany, St. Leger lay before Fort Stan\vi.\, 
and heard more and more ek-arly the rumblings of fresh resistance fi'om the 
valley. 

Tub Relief iindeu Arnold's Le.vd. 

Colonel Willett who led the gallent sortie, accompanied by Major Stockwell, 
risked no less danger on a mission through thickets and hidden foes, to inform 
General Schuyler at Albany of the situation. In a council of officers, bitter oppo- 
sition arose to Schuyler's proposal to send relief to Fort Stanwi.x, on the plea that 
it would weaken the array at Albany, the more important position. Schuyler wiis 
equal to the occasion, acting promptly,and with great energy. " Gentlemen," said 
he, " I take the responsibility upon myself. Where is the brigadier who will 
command the relief? I shall beat up for volunteers to-morro\v.''t Benedict 
Arnold, then unstained by treason, promptly offered to lead the aimy. On the 
next day, August ninth,| eight hundred volunteers were enrolled, chiefly of Gen- 
eral Larned's Massachusetts brigade. General Israel Putnam ordered the regiments 
of Colonels Cortlaiidt and Livingston from Peekskill to join the relief " against 
those worse than infornals." » Arnold was to take supplies wherever he could get 
them, and especially not to offend the already unfriendly Mohawks. Schuyler 
enjoined upon him also " as the inhabitants of Tryon county were chiefly Ger- 
mans, it might be well to praise their bravery at Oriskany, and ask their gallant 
aid in the enterprise." Arnold reached Fort Dayton, and on the twentieth of 
.Vugust issued as commander-in-chief of the arm_v of the United States of 
America on the Mohawk river, a characteristic proclamation, denouncing St. 
Leger as " a leader of a banditti of robbers, murderers and traitors, composed of 
savages of America and more savage Britons." The militia joined him in great 
numbers. On the twenty-second, Arnold pushed forward, and on the twenty- 
fourth he arrived at Fort Stanwix. St. Leger had raised the siege and precipi- 
tately fled. 

St. Leger had been frightened by rumors of the rapid advance of Arnold's 
army. Arnold had taken pains to fill the air with them. He had sent to St. 
Leger's camp a half-witted royalist, Hon. Yost Schuyler, to exaggerate his num- 
bers and his speed. The Indians in camp were restive and kept track of the 
army of relief. They badgered St. Leger to retreat, and threatened to abandon 
him. They raised the alarm, " Ihcy are coming!" and for the numbers of the 
patriots approaching, they pointed to the leaves of the forest. • 

St. Leger's Flight. 

On the twenty-second of August, while Arnold was yet at Utica, St. Leger fled. 
The Indians were weary ; they had lost goods by Willctt's sortie ; they saw no 
chance for spoils. Their chiefs killed at Oriskany beckoned them away. They 
began to abandon the ground, and to spoil the camp of their allies. St. Leger 
deemed his danger from them, if he refused to follow their counsels, greater than 
from the enemy. He hurried his wounded and prisoners forward; he left his 
tents, with most of his artillerj- and stores, spoils to the garrison.* His men threw 

*The British Impartial History saj-s "Colonel Gansevoort behaved with great firmness," p. 475. 
tLossing's Life of Schuyler. 

t Letter of Schuyler in .\nnals of Tryon County, p. 88. 

S Gordon's History, vol. 2. p. .'i')!, who cites Reverend Samuel Kirkland "who was part of the 
time at the fort," as his direct informant. 

1-3 



90 Centennial Celebkations. 

away their packs in their flight. He quarreled with Johnson, and the Indians had 
to make peace between them. St. Lcger indeed was helpless. The flight became 
a disgraceful rout. The Indians butcliered alike prisoners and British who could 
not keep up, or become separated from the column.''' St. Leger's expedition, as 
one of the latest became one of the most striking illustrations to the British of the 
risks and terrors of an Indian alliance.'" 

The siege of Fort Stanwix was raised. The logic of the Battle of Oriskany was 
consummated. The whole story has been much neglected, and the best authori- 
ties on the subject are British.* The battle is one of a series of events which 
constitute a chain of history as picturesque, as exciting, as heroic, as important, 
as ennoble any part of this or any other land. 

The Weight and Measure op the Battle. 

Oriskany it is om' duty to weigh and measure. "Wherein was the stand of 
Greeks at Thermopylas braver than this march of Herkimer into the ravine ? 
"Wherein have Norse vikings shown sturdier stuff in flght ? Tell me when pano- 
plied crusader ever made more light of death than those unmailed farmers of the 
Mohawk. Cite from verse of ancient or modern poet the elan of truer corn-age, 
the steadiness of sterner determination, the consecration of more glowing jiatriot- 
ism than held the pass at Oriskany. 

The Strategy Historic. 

The strategy of the British campaign of 1777 was comprehensive, and it was 
traditional. "With Canada hostile to the country south of it, the plan of Burgoyne 
was as natural as it is for a pugilist to strike with both fists. Fronting south- 
ward, indeed, the blow by Lake Champlain the Canadian forces deliver with their 
left fist ; the route by Lake Ontario through Oswego inland, invites the blow of 
the right hand. As early as 1087 the French government received from Canada 
a memorial which recommends : ' ' The Iroquois must be attacked in two direc- 
tions. The first, and principal attack must be on the Seneca nation, on the bor- 
ders of Lake Ontario ; the second by the river Richelieu and Lake Champlain, in 
the direction of the Mohawks, "t The French authorities never abandoned this 
purpose until they were driven from the continent. Prontenac wrote his name in 
fire and blood in the way Burgoyne sought to travel. The co-operation of the 
fleet at the mouth of the Hudson, was proposed by Mons. Callierrcs in 1089. | 
Montcalm § led tlic French by these paths in 1750, when DeLery penetrated to 
Fort Bull, at the carry near the Mohawk, and the English power yielded up 
Champlain and Lake George to the invaders. Holding the southern shores of 
Lake Ontario, it was from Lake Champlain, \\'ith co-operation by a force brought 
up the St. Lawrence, that the English dealt the return attack in 1759, when 
Wolfe fell before Quebec. At Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on the path to the 
Hudson, and at Niagara on Lake Ontario, the French power in America breathed 
its last. 

* For portions of the record, Stone's Life of Brant must be excepted, as a faithful and accurate 
chronicle. 

+ Paris Documents, p. .S21 . 

X Paris Documents, p . 420 

§ See the Memoir of the French War of 1755-60, by M . Pouchot, translated by F B. Hough. JI. 
Pouchot, who was with Montcalm, could learn of no routes from Canada to the English posses- 
sions except, 1, by way of Lalce Champlain; 2, by the , St. Lawrence to Oswego and the Oswego 
river; 3, by Lake Ontario to the Genesee river; and 4, by way of Niagara to the Ohio river. 



Oriskany. 91 

In October, 177G, Sir Guy Carleton had swept over Lake Champlain, and taken 
Crown Point, and only waited for another season to carry liis conquests south- 
ward. It was, ])erliaps, because in London Burgoyne criticised the neglect to 
send a corps by way of Oswego, through the Jlohuwk valley, to assist in the cam- 
paign, that he, instead of Carleton, led the invasion which ended so disastrously 
for Britain. 

But the British government had earlier precedents than these for choosing these 
routes for the campaign of 1777. Tlie Frenclr migration came by them into the 
wilderness which is now New York, and it was by them that, at intervals for a 
hundred years, the Iroquois and their allies carried terror to the walls of Montreal 
and Quebec. The campaigns of the war of 1813 renewed the traditions of the 
military importance of the line of Lake Ontario. What took place at Oswego and 
Plattsburgh, and McDonough's victory perpetuate the series of contests in 
this historic field. The key to the heart of the original union lies in the heights 
from which flow the Mohawk and the Hudson. 

St. Leger's Expedition a Vit^u> Part. 

In the original plan, St. Leger's expedition is stated as a "diversion," both by 
Burgoyne and in the official letter of Lord George Germaine, the secretary of 
state for war. The command was given to St. Leger from Whitehall, on Bur- 
goyne's nomination, so that it was an independent expedition. The troops were 
in like manner selected, because much depended on the movement. Upon his 
success, as it proved, the campaign hung. When Burgoyne explained his failure, 
he laid much stress on the defeat of St. Leger, and one of the chief points to 
account for his own slowness, is: " tlie time entitled me to expect Lieutenant 
Colonel St. Leger's corps would be arrived at Ticonderoga, and secret means had 
been long concerted to enable him to make an effort to join me, with probability 
of success." And because St. Leger "had been obliged to retreat," he assigns 
as removing " the first plausible motive in favor of hazardous battle," when he 
was near Saratoga. In the campaign of 1777, the expedition to the Jlohawk was one 
of the two wings without which success was impossible, which once clipped, crip- 
pled every thing. The battle of Bennington was brought on by a British move- 
ment, having two objects in view ; first, to obtain supplies, and second, to 
create a diversion to aid St. Leger.* Every historian who writes of Burgoyne's 
operations treats the expedition to the Mohawk as in a military sense a vital cle- 
ment in them." 

Effect of Orisk^vjjy on the Vallet and the Indians. 

But we get a faint view of the purpose of the expedition, and of the signifi- 
cance of Oriskany, if we look only at military considerations. Its moral influ- 
ence was great and far-reaching. Sir John Johnson boasted that the tories were 
as five to one in the Mohawk valley, and when he came at the head of a British 
army, they would rise for- the king. Through Johnson and Brant, the design was 
fostered of holding the Six Nations closely to the royal cau.se, and thus crushing 
out the whole patriot influence west of the Hudson. Both purposes were shrewd, 
and had fair grounds. The patiiots knew of these dangers. In the summons 
which had aroused Tryon county, they had been told : " one resolute blow would 

♦ Stedman's History of the Revolution (one of the British records of the struggle) ; Bancroft, 
vol. 5, p. *T. 



92 Centenniax Celebrations. 

secure the friendship of the Six Nations." The Committee of Safety knew the 
efforts it cost to maintain tlie authority of Congress. Herkimer fought at Oris- 
Icany against a tory rising at Johnstown, against the complete enhstmeut of the 
Iroquois with the British. His victory is measured only when we remember that 
no tory rising ever disgraced the Mohawk valley, and that from that hour the 
Indians were a som'ce of terror and of weakness to the forces of King George. - 

Effect ok the Country. 

The effect of Oriskany on the Americans was electric. Washington said 
" Herkimer first reversed the gloomy scene " of the campaign. General Gates 
•ftTOte of "the severe blow General Herkimer gave Johnson and the scalpers under 
his command." General Schuj'ler, in replying to General Herkimer's report, said: 
' ' The gallantry of you and the few men that stood with you and repulsed such a 
superior number of savages, reflects gi'eat honor upon you." Governor George 
Clinton expressed "the highest sense of the loyalty, valor and bravery of the militia 
of Tryon county, manifested in the \'ictory gained by them under the command 
of their late worthy General Herkimer, for which, as the chief magistrate of the 
free and independent State of New York, they have my most hearty thanks."'^ 

The defense of Fort Stanwix led John Adams to declare that ' ' Ganesvoort has 
proved that it is possible to hold a post," and the Oneida Spencer had warned the 
Tryon patriots not to make a Ticonderoga of Fort Stan-n-ix. 

These wise leaders estimated the battle better than writers like Irving,* who 
intimates that " it does not appear that either party was entitled to the victory," 
or Dr. Thacher,t who can only claim that " St. Leger's ■sdctory over our militia 
was purchased at a dear price," or Lossing,J who bluntly speaks of "the defeat 
of Herkimer." The patriots held the ground, and carried off their wounded at 
leisure. Of the tory wounded JIajor Watts lay two days uncared for. By the 
battle St. Leger was bottled up in his camp; by it, the forces ordered with 
Arnold, and probably also, the Massachusetts troops Avho took part in Willctt's 
sortie, were able to join in the operations against Burgoyno, and were in the first 
battle of Stillwater. § The whole valley of the Mohawk cast itself into the scales 
for the victory of Saratoga." 

Herkimer started for Fort Stanwix, and his force, except a few scouts, did not 
reach it. His little anny was broken up. But its sacrifice, costly as it was, saved 
the valley. The frightful slaughter of their leaders at first paralyzed the settlers, 
but they rallied without delay and joined Arnold's relief army in large numbers. |{ 
The battle penned St. Leger and Johnson and Brant before Fort Stanvvox. It 
raised the spirits of the beleaguered garrison to a high pitch.' With Bennington 
which came afterward, the Americans felt it gave them "great and glorious vic- 
tories,"" and "nothing exceeded their exultation" over them; and the "northern 
militia began now to look high, and to forget all distinctions between themselves 
and regular troops." This confidence was worth armies. Congress voted a monu- 
ment to Herkimer, not yet erected save in the hearts ©f the people, and no one 
questioned that the gallant chief had earned the distinction. To Colonel Willett 

• Life of Washington, vol. 3, p. 178. 

tMilitaiT Journal, p. S9. 

t Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. I, p. 2.10. 

§ Lossinp's Field-Book, vol. 1, p ^1, enumerates at Stillwater all the repiments which marched 
up the valley with Arnold, and Colonel Wesson's Massachusetts regimient, of which was the 
detachment whicli reached Kort Stanwi.'c on the second of .August. 

1 Arnold's letter to Colonel Gansevoort, August '.!2, 1777. 



Oriskany. 93 

a sword was preseuted by Congress for his noble exploit, anrl Colonel Gansevoort 
received the thanks of Congress, a colonel's commission, anil a special designation 
!js commandant of the fort which he had so bravelj- defended. 

Aims and Estimates on Both Sides. 

The Battle of Oriskany and the defense of Fort Stanwix arc Siamese twins. 
Separate events, they are so conjoined that they must be treated as inseparable in 
fact. The battle so paralyzed St. Leger and demoralized his army, that tlie siege 
became a failure. It is notable that British historians nearest to the event give 
to Oriskany a degree of prominence which our own writere have hardly equaled. 
The defeat of St. Leger's expedition British writers of that day recognize as one 
of the pivots on whicli Saratoga was lost and won, and British sentiment agrees 
that " Saratoga w.as indeed the turning point of the American struggle."* Tlie 
British Annual Register, notewortliy because established by Edmund Burke, and 
because its historical articles were still revised if not written by him, in the 
volume for 1777, piiblished the next year, clearly indicates that the valley of the 
Mohawk was the very eye of the campaign." This judgment is the more impor- 
tant because the identical text is embodied in the History of the War printed in 
Dublin, 1779, and has become standard in England. In the Impartial History, 
after Burgoyne's arrival at Ticonderoga, the author says: "It is not to be 
wondered at, if both othcers and private men (in B\u-goyne's army) were highly 
elated with tlieir fortune, and deemed that and their prowess to be irresistible ; 
if they regarded their enemy with the greatest contempt, and considered their 
own toils to be nearly at an end ; Albany to be already in their hands, and the 
reduction of the northern provinces to be rather a matter of some time, than an 
arduous task full of difficulty and danger."! Erroneously referring to Benning- 
ton, the same author uses words justly applicable to Oriskany: J; "This was the 
first instance in the present campaign, in which fortune seemed even wavering, 
much less that she for a moment quitted the royal standard. The exultation wsis 
accordingly great on the one side; nor could the other avoid feeling some damp 
to that eagerness of hope, and receiving some check to that assured confidence of 
success, which an unmixed series of fortunate events must naturally e.vcitc." The 
shield had been fully reversed, witliin a single month. 

St. Leger claimed that Johnson won " the completest victory," but this was on 
the assumption "that the militia would never rally."" He miscalculated the 
blow; it was not fatal to tlie patriots; its consequences were fatal to his plans. 
The check which he received at Oriskany, and its conseqiient delay, forced Bur- 
goyne to take the risk which brought on him the defeat at Bennington. Although 
second in importance as well as in order of time, Stcdman, " one of the best 
British authorities, names the Vermont fight first in order, as does the British 
Impartial History (London, 1780), fixing Bennington properly on August Kitli, 
Imt for the affair on tlie Mohawk, naming no date until St. Leger's flight 
on the twenty-second of August. The " History of the War," published 
in Dublin, 1770, places the Battle of Oriskany on the sixteenth of August, on the 
.same day as that of Bennington. § In spite of this reversal of the order of time, 
all these authorities concede to the affair at Oriskany a measure of importance 



• English Cyclopedia, article on Iliirgoyne. 

t Impartial ITistory of tliu War iu iVmeriea, London, 1780, p. 460. 

tTlie same, p. iTi. 

§ Pages iail-a*}. 



94 Centennial Celebrations. 

whicli the occup.ants of tl>c liistoric field onl}' begin to assert. As the first blow 
of the campaign, Oriskanj' lias, to the campaign of 1777, the primacy -which 
Lexington has to the whole war. 

The failure of St. Leger cut off the right arm of Burg03'ne. Burgoyne, still 
clinging to his hopes, believed if Sir Henry Clinton had reached the Highlands 
earlier, as ho did when too late, he "should have had his way."* But his own 
detailed statement pro\'es that he felt that the grave of his campaign was dug 
when a royalist rising was prevented in the Mohawk valley ; '' and that was the 
achievement of Herkimer and the heroes of Oriskany. 

The success of St. Leger at Oriskany and Fort Stanwix would have been fatal. 
The Mohawk valley would have been overrun by the tories. Albany would have 
fallen, and Gates been overpowered. Defeat, decided and prompt, would have 
turned St. Leger back to Oswego, and enabled him with the remnant of his 
corps, to open a retreat for Burgoyne, as the latter intimates had been con- 
tingently concerted.! For the emergencj' of a defeat which closed the Mohawk 
valley, and of a siege which held him for three weeks before Fort Stanw^ix, no 
calculation had been made. It was this combination which proved so fortunate for 
the republic. 

Divisions in the Valley: Dangers Averted. 

The dangers to the American cause in the valley were peculiar. To the Ger- 
man settlers King George had always been a foreign king. They owed him 
neither affection nor allegiance. It was easy for them to sustain Congress and to 
fight for independence. They had been jealous of the influence of the Johnsons 
over the Indians, and over the valley, and that pique was fully reciprocated. 
Besides the ties of family favor and apparent interest, the Johnsons clung all the 
more closely to the royal cause, because tlje Germans took the other part. Some- 
thing of religious feeling entered into the division, for the Johnsons stood for the 
Church of England, and Kirkland and other dissenting ministers had been press- 
ing for independence in faith and practice.]: Tlie interior of New York had felt 
little or nothing of the burden of taxes which had stirred the other colonies. No 
royal charter had ever been in force over the State. The settlers who came from 
Britain hither lacked the causes for separation which stirred New England and 
the South, and when the immigrants from other lands enlisted for Congress, the 
tory leaders confidently trusted that they could carry the British colonists for 
King George. Many causes prevented. The patriot leaders were shrewd and 
diligent, and they were on the soil, while the tory chiefs were absent. For no 
long time is it possible that New York shall be alien from New England and the 
States on our southern borders. But the fight at Oriskany came at the right time 
to kindle the patriot fires, to draw the lines between the belligerents, to merge 
old world antagonisms into American patriotism. In the blood shed in that his- 
toric field, New York was baptised as a State, and as a State in an enduring 
republic, in a united nation. 

SlONIFICANCE FROM L0C.\TI0N. 

The battle of Oriskany was the more significant because it was fought near the 
center of the Long House of the Iroquois. Indian phrase had so styled the val- 

» Defense, p. 17. 

+ Burgoyne's Defense (London, 1780), p. 15. 

X See Lothrop's Life otRev. Samuel Kirkland, p. 233, for a notable illustration. 



Oriskany. * 95 

ley, for wliicli they ])I:i(ecl the western door at tlie opening of the waters at Niag- 
ara, and the eastern door where the Mohawk seeks the Hudson.* It was held 
with its approaehes, wlun tlie white men came, by the Six Nations, the master 
tribes among tl\e Indians. They had discovered its iitness for the path of empire 
and tlie seat of dominion. Oadwallader Colden, in 17S.S, in an official report,! noted 
the peculiar feature that here ".some branches of the largest rivers of North 
America, and which run contrary courses, take their rise within two or three miles 
of each other;" the Slohawk flowing into the Hudson, the St. Lawrence finding 
allluents to carry northward, the Susquehanna to add to Chesapeake bay; and 
from the western walls of the Long House, waters seek the Mississippi and the 
Gulf. This configuration gave, naturally, political and military significance to 
what is now the center of New York.t The Iroquois from it became little less 
than lords of the continent. Into it the French missionaries early came to spy 
out the land, with that devotion wliieh led Father Jogues§ to "write the name of 
Jesus on the barks of trees in the Mohawk Valley," in 1642, and that foresight 
which for generations prompted the French Governors of Canada to aim to e.xpel 
the English by the instrumentality of the Iroquois. || In critical periods the 
British found the Iroquois, by their fidelity and prowess, a sufficient bulwark 
against French encroachments. IT From Manhattan the Dutch had reached out 
and planted Fort Orange at Albany, and had made friends and kept friends with 
the Iro(|uois. Over from the New England settlements the English crowded into 
lands whose advantages they cleai-ly saw, and the English Governors at ilanhattan 
were glad to frame treaties to grant to the Iroquois the same advantages which 
they had enjoyed from the Dutch.** Yet the first permanent settlers in a portion 
of the valley were Germans from the Palatinate, who came hither in 1712-13, 
after stopping on the Ilud.son. ft Sir William .Johnson, himself an Irishman, took 
great pains to gather British colonists about him, and was in large measure suc- 
cessful, and the Scotch colony was influential and self-asserting. As from the 
Long House of the Iroquois waters flow in all directions, so into it tended cur- 
rents of population from all directions. The Dutch proprietors could not stop 
this cosmopolitan drift. The German immigration prevented tendencies so dis- 
tinctively British as prevailed in other colonies. The large share of northern 
New York in the Anglo-French wars continued its traditional importance. J }: 

Here between Ontario and Champlain, it was decided that the nascent State 
should be cosmopolitan and not Dutch. §§ Here in large part it was decided, if not 
that the political relations of the State should be British and not French, that 
the language, the civilization, the social tendencies should be cast in the mold of 
Hampden and Jlilton .and Shakespeare, rather than in those of Paris and Ver- 
sailles. This whole region had indeed been included in New France. Louis 

♦IVforgan's Leaeue of the Iroquois, p. -10. 

t Documentary Historj' of New York, vol. 4, p. lis. 

JDeWitt Clinton's Address on tlie Iroquois. Cimpbell's Life of Clinton, p. 210 Brodhead's 
History of New York, vol. 2, p. 8 

SBnneroft, vol. 2, p. .310. 

I Paris Documents, Documentary Histoo', vol n, pp. 954, 958. , 

1 Bancroft, vol. 3, p. 152. 

•♦ Brodhead's History of New York, vol l.p. 711. 

++ Certain Gei'nians who had sought England for a refuge, it is said, became interested in the 
Mohawks who visited Queen .\nni'. and were by the chiefs induced to migrate to America. 

Jt Ex-Ciovernor Horatio Seymour, in his lecture on the History and Topograjihy of New York, 
has admirably presented the relations of the State growing out of its natural situation. 

8§ August 1. isre. Rev .lohn Taylor, a missionary from New England, visite<l I'tiea on his way 
west, and says of it : " Utiea nppi'ars to bi- a mixed ma.ss of discordant materials. Here may be 
found people of ten or twelve dilterent nations, and of almost all religions and sects." 



96 Centennial Celebrations. 

XVI and his ministers watchod events here with especial interest, and naturally 
desii'ed that Britain shonkl not cinitinue to possess what France had lost. If St. 
Leger was beaten where Frontenac and Montcalm had swept in victory, the infant 
republic, with French aid, might stand and grow a rival to British power. Here 
large impetus was given to the decision that this continent should bo American 
and not British. 

The location of Oriskany rendered the battle controlling in determining the 
attitude of the jMohawk valley, and in putting an end to British hopes of royalist 
uprising there. It shattered and rendered useless the British alliance with the 
Indians. It helped to insvu'e French co-operation with the colonies, and brought 
us the fleet of D'Estaing tlie next summer. It paved the-way to the victory over 
Burgoyne. "Without Oriskany, there could have been no Saratoga. Herkimer 
laid in blood the corner-stone of that temple of unwinged victory, which was 
completed on the heiglits where Burgoyne surrendered. Afterward through the 
long contest, although local raids and savage butcheries were perpetrated, no 
operations of grand war were attempted in these historic regions. While nomi- 
nally British purposes were unchanged, the colonies north and east of New York 
bay escaped the ravages of broad conflict, and entered upon their career of 
national growth and prosperity. 

CONCLtrSION. 

Extravagant eulogy never honors its object. Persistent neglect of events which 
have molded history is not creditable to those who inherit the golden fruits. 
We do not blush to grow warm over the courage which at Platcea saved Greece 
forever from Persian invasion. Calm men praise the determination which at 
Lepanto set limits to Turkish conquests in Europe. Waterloo is the favorite of 
rhetoric among English-speaking people. But history no less exalts the Spartan 
three hundred wlio died at Thermop3'la3, and poetry immortalizes the six hundred 
whose leader blundered at Balaklava. Signally negligent have the people of 
Central New Tork been to the men and the deeds that on the soil we daily tread 
have controlled the tides of nations, and fashioned the -channels of civilization. 
After a hundred years we begin to know what the invasion of St. Leger meant. 
A century lifts uj) Nicholas Herkimer, if not into a consummate general, to the 
plane of sturdy manliness and of unselfish, devoted jjatriotism, of a hero who 
knew how to fight and how to die. History begins to appreciate the difficulties 
which surrounded Philip Schuyler, and to see that he appeared slow in bringing 
out the strength of a patriot State, because the scales of destiny were weighted to 
hand New York over to Johnson and Burgoyne and Clinton and King George. 
His eulogy is, that when popular impatience, and jealousies in other colonics, and 
ambitions in the army, and cliques in Congress, superseded him in tlie command 
of the northern armies of the United States, he had already stirred up the Mohawk 
valley to the war blaze at Oriskany; he had relieved Fort Stanwix and sent St. 
Leger in disgraceful retreat; Bennington had been fought and won;* he had thus 
shattered the British alliance with the Indians, and had trampled out the tory 
embers in the Mohawk Valley ; he had gathered above Albany an army flushed 
with victor}', and greatly siqjcrior to Burgoyne's forces in numbers, and it was 
well led and adequate to the task before it. 

Oriskany, the Indians interpret as the Place of Nettles. Out of that nettle 

* General Gates took command of the army before Burgoyne, August 14, 1777, but had nothing 
to do with Bennington. 



Oriskany. 97 

clanger Ilcrkimcr phickcil for tlie !Molia\vk Valley, and through it for the repub- 
lic, the flower safety. In that Place of Nettles, Central New York may find 
much to stir it to deeper knowledge of its history and its relations, to greater 
anxiety to be just to those who have served it worthily, to keener appreciation of 
the continental elevation whit'h nature has reared for us, and upon which we may 
build a structure more symmetrical and more beneticent than the Parthenon, — a 
free State based on equal justice, strong in the virtue of its citizens devoted to all 
tliat is best and most beautiful in mankind, inspired by the noblest achievements 
in history, manfully meeting the luunblest duties, and struggling upward to the 
highest ideals. Names and deeds that live a hundred years, change hills and 
vallevs into classic ground. Tlie century which runs backward is only the dawn 
of those which look into the future. Central New York must have a worthy 
career before it to justify the traditions of the Long House of the Iroquois ; of the 
real statesmanship of the League of the Six Nations, and of the eloquence of their 
chief men ; of the Jesuit missionaries and the Samuel Kirklands and the Lutheran 
clergymen, who consecrated its waters and its soil and its trees; of those who 
saved it from French occupation; of those who kept out the Stuarts and drove 
out King George. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Uoberts' speech, Mr. Seymour exhibited 
the revolutionary relics. Among these was the brass snare drum, sent 
iqi from Albany by Mrs. Lansing. On the brass coat of the drum was 

tliL' following inserijitioii : 

" Presented 
by Peter Gansevoort, of the citj' of Albany, coimsellor-at-law, to the Albany 
Republican Artillery Company, on the 23d February, 1833." 

" Taken from the enemy on the 32dAug., 1777, when the British army under 
Gen. St. Leger, raised the siege of Fort Stanwix, which fortress had been valiantly 
defended by the garrison under the command of Colonel Peter Gansevoort for 31 
days." 

A powder hovu wliicli had come down from tlie old days was exhib- 
ited, al.so an English musket taken from the enemj^ on that self-same 
field, and now the property of Dr. J. D. Clyde, of Cherry Yalley. A 
card attached related that witli that nuisket Colonel Clyde %vas knocked 
down at the battle of Oriskany. These relics, or mementoes, were 
viewed with curious interest by the ])eople, as many as possible press- 
ing up to make personal examination of them. 

The cliairman introduced Major Douglass Cajipbell, of New York, 
a great-grandson of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Campbell, of Clierry 
Vallev, who was scci>nd in connnand of Colonel Co.x's reiriment, which 
bore the brunt of tlie fight. After the wouilding of Gen. Herkimer 
and the death c)f ColoiU'l Cox, Colonel Campbell was left in comman<l, 
and led off the victorious American forces from the battle-ground. 
13 



98 CENTEmsriAL Celebeations. 



ADDKESS OF MAJOE DOUGLASS CAMPBELL 

Moi'e thau two thousand years ago tlie mountain fastnesses of Greece witnessed 
a battle wlucli liistory has made immortal. The force engaged upon the Grecian 
side numbered but three hundred, and yet while history shall be read and poetry 
sung, fame will perpetuate the memory of the little band that held the passes of 
Thermopylse. Leonidas was defeated, but in defeat he taught his enemy that 
wliilo a drop of Grecian blood coursed through ii Grecian heart, the hordes of the 
Persian invader could gain no foothold on the sacred soil. - 

We meet to-day to celebrate a victory won by eight hundred men, eight hun- 
dred gallant yeomen of New York, a victory as creditable to the valor of the men 
who won it as any recorded in history, and withal a victory the most important 
in its results, of any gained in the revolutionary struggle. 

I do not propose, Mr. President, again to rehearse the events of that summer 
day a century ago. The gentleman who has just sat do-mi, and the music of 
whose voice still lingers in our ears, has drawn for us a picture wliich would be 
only weakened by any f m-ther touches. Besides this, I came to listen and not to 
speak. But a soldier, the descendant of soldiers should know how to obey orders, 
and when an hour since you told me for the first time that I must make a speech, 
I regretted your selection, but at once cast about to tliink what I should say. 

Fortunately my inspiration was before me in a sea of uptm'ned faces. As I saw 
this audience drinking in with eager ears the tale before unknown to most of 
them, of what their heroic ancestors did here a hundred years ago, I could but 
think of the great wrong which has been clone to our State by the way in which 
our common histories are written. 

How strange and inexcusable has been the neglect of this battle of Oriskany 
you have already heard, but this is only a specimen of the mode in which our 
whole Colonial record has been penned. All this is coming to an end, and my 
greatest pleasure in such gatherings as this is found in the fact that here I see the 
earnest of the righting of this wrong. The presence of this countless multitude 
shows that at length the people of New York are waking up to realize the grandeur 
of the liistory of their native State. I have read some histories of the United 
States, which I have laid down after a perusal, with the question in my mind, 
was there any such colony as New York, were there any colonies of the Revolution 
except Massachusetts and Virginia, Virginia, the mother of Presidents, Massa- 
chusetts, the maker of our school-books ? As Governor Seymour has eloquently 
said to-day, the history of New York has yet to be -^Titten, and when that 
history is written, the world -u-ill see that in the struggle for the rights of freemen, 
extending over more than a hundred years prior to the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, New York led the van of the thirteen colonies. 

The first fact which gave to New York her vast importance in colonial times 
was that which has largely led to her present greatness, namely, her geographical 
position. On tliis I need not dwell ; you before me, who in your time have seen 
untold thousands pouring through this valley for the peaceful conquest of the 
west, can readily understand the importance of the Mohawk and the Hudson 
before the days of canals and railroads. They gave to New York the key to the 
continent, a costly honor, however, for it involved her in endless wars. 

The next marked feature of the colony was the character of her popiJation. In 



Oriskany. 99 

this she diflered from all her neighbors. They for the most part were settled bj' a 
homogeneous people, but New York was always cosmopolitan. Her population 
in the colonial days was composed of as diverse elements as now make up the 
people of this great city. 

First in time stand the Dutch — heroic men who came in an heroic age. AVe 
never can overrate their influence in the history of American libertj'. Their New 
England neighbors sometimes sneered at the Dutchmen, but an American historian 
has taught the whole world to do them honor. While Henry Hudson was on his 
memorable voyage, the inhabitants of the United Netherlands took their place 
among the nations of the earth as an independent people. For forty long years 
they had carried on a war with Spain and had grown great in the struggle. At 
the outset they only demanded religious liberty as subjects. For answer their 
country was overrun by Alva and his Spanish butchers, the Council of Blood 
covered the land with gibbets and the inquisition sacrificed its victims by thou- 
sands. Then they became a nation of warriors worthy of their Batavian ances- 
tors whom Tacitus has immortalized. " Other nations," said he, "go to battle — 
they go to war." In the open field they defeated the trained legions of Philip; 
besieged in their cities they surrendered only to famine, and at times, to sweep 
the invader from their soil, they cut their dykes and gave the land back to the 
sea from which it had been rescued. In 1581, thirteen years after the outbreak, 
they proclaimed their independence of Philip, and thenceforth fought for civil as 
well as religious liberty. On the 9th of April, 1609, while iho Ihdf Moan , Hud- 
son's vessel, was on the ocean after forty years of continuous war, Philip the Third 
signed a twelve years' truce at Antwerp, by which he recognized the United 
Netherlands as " free countries, provinces and states." It is to this people, rest- 
less and undaunted, successful by the land and by the sea, whose motto was 
"Taxation only by consent," who founded the first great republic and who 
enforced the doctrine of universal religious toleration, that the Empire State of 
New York owes its origin. 

Next in point of numbers and of time came another race, who, however, need 
no eulogy, for history has always done them justice. They were the men who 
chanted psalms as they went into the battle of Ivry with Henry of NavaiTC, who 
for years had by their virtues kept France from sinking into unutter.able depths of 
iniblie and private vice. 

Then came accessions from New England of the more liberal thinkers, who fled 
from that new hierarchy to find a home where they could be free to worship God 
as they saw fit. Later on came Protestants, driven out of the Palatinate by the 
cnielties of Louis the Fourteenth, Scotch-Irish who had borne the horrors of the 
siege of Londonderry, Catholic Highlanders who had fought with the Pretender. 

Thus the people were gathered from all nations, Dutch, French, English, Ger- 
man, Irish and Scotch, and yet they had one bond of union. 

They had all suffered for their religion, and all had a keen sense, not only of 
their religious, but of their civil rights. Is it any wonder that a people so com. 
posed should have loved liberty as they loved their lives? 

They obtained their first Legislature in 1083, and they wrung it from the 
reluctant Duke of York, by refusing any longer to pay taxes unless imposed by 
their own consent. The Duke's collector of revenue attempting to levy duties 
was arrested, thro-n-n into prison, and tried for treason by the indignant popidace. 

When the a.ssembly came together a majority of its members were foimd to be 
men of Dutch descent. The fact is noteworthy, for their first act was one which 



1 00 Centennial Celebkations. 

should eiult';ii- ll\oh- uu'nuiry to cvory native- of this St;ito. Thry passed a bill of 
rights, I'utitU'il a " (.'harti'v of Lilioftios and Privilogos," which, 1>y the way, was 
iniitati'd oight ycai'S afti-rwai'd by Massaohusotts, although hot- historians overlook 
tho fai't. In bold, uumistakablo Ituiguage, it assorted tliat the " svipreme legisla- 
ti\o jiower should forever be and reside in the Governor, council and people, met 
in general assembly," and then went on to eniuuevate the other rights to winch 
they were entitled ; among these were trial by .iury, freedom from taxation, except 
by their own consent, exemption from martial law, and the quartering of soldiers 
upon citizens, and perfect toleration to all persons professing faith in Christ. Of 
this noble document, issued in IGSo, it may be said that it is surpassed by nothing 
in An\erican history ; no, not by the Declaration of Independence itself, for the 
boldness and force of language with which it declares the jieople of ICew York 
entitled to all the rights of freemei\. 

But this act was only an enactment on the statute books ; it showed what the 
Colonists desired ; what they did is of more importance. They established the 
right, of petition, freedom of religious worship aud freedom of the press. These 
were established by the great State trials in the colonies, and the sister provinces 
shared the fruits. In establishing freedom of religious worship in the trial of 
McKemie, in l7t1T, they also settled another question, which, so far as I can learn, 
has been substantially overlooked. ilcKemie, a Presbyterian clergyman, was 
m-rested for preaching without ,i license from the Governor, the; Governor's 
instructions providing that no minister should preach in the province without his 
license. McKemie took the position, in which he was sustained by his three 
counsel, the ablest lawyers in New York, and all Episcopalians, that the royal 
instructions had no force as law. Heretofore the royal prerogative had been 
supreme in the colonies, but when the jury acquitted the jirisoner its death knell 
was sounded. 

Then the colonists refused to raise money by taxation, unless it could be dis- 
bursed by a treasurer of their own; then they refused to permit amendment to 
their money bills, and then to make any but atutual appropriations for the expen- 
ses of government. In all these struggles tl\e Xew Yorkers were successful, but 
they fought out the tight alone. 

At length the English Government saw- that nothing could be done with such a 
refmctory people, and resolved that Parliament itself should tax the colonics. 
This n-solution, proclaimed in respect to New York as early as 1711, was not 
practically enforced, however, till fifty years thereafter. Then the famous stamp 
act was passed, and the continent was all aflame — still, however, Xew York led 
the van of opposition. The first organized resistance by the non-importation 
agreement among the merchants was started in Xew York, next followed Phila- 
delphia and hvst came Boston. This effected the repeal of the detested act. 
Then came the tea bill and the revolution, and how well Xew York did its jiart 
therein seems to be known to few. If you would know what I mean turn to the 
common histories of the revolution, written by men who photograph the V>reakers 
on the shore, and call their work a map of the mighty ocean. There you will read 
that Xew York had a large tory element among her iHipulation, and you will find 
little else Ix^sides. Well, this is true, but it is only a fraction of the truth. 

We have seen already some of the peculiarities of Xew York's geographical 
position, but glance at them again, and you will wonder that she was not hopelessly- 
impotent before the enemy. The rebellious colonies had no navy, England was 
mistress of the seas. Her flet^t swept up our harbor without resistance, the city 



Orisk.vny. 101 

was captured, it was surrouiidwl by no commuudiiig hciglUs from which the foe 
coiild be (^slodged, and, until the close of the war, it remained in possession of 
the enemy. The influence of this can readily be imagined; the venal were pur- 
chased, the timid were overawed. Nor was the Engli^ih occupation confined to 
the capital alone. They held tlic whole of Staten Lsland, and Long Lsland, and 
their fleets gave them control of the Sound, and the Hudson river, almost to AVest 
Point. 

New York had the most powerful aristocracy of any of the colonies — her vast 
estates, larger than counties, were owned by men, some of them, allied by birth and 
marriage to the nobility of England. When these men sided with the crown, 
they carried with them an army of retainers. But, now, carry your mind away 
from the capital, left in possession of the enemy, and glance here at the center of 
the State. Almost from Albany to Niagara stretched the wigwams of the relent- 
less Six Nations, the allies of Great Britain. They were the Romans of the Indian 
race — sage in council, wily in diplomacy and fearless in battle. In their midst, 
owning an estate as large as a principality, dwelt the great Sir William Johnson, 
one of the most remarkable men in American historj-. The dispenser of official 
patronage, the commander of the militia of his county, numbering fourteen hun- 
dred men, he was looked up to by the whites, but revered by the red men, as 
vicegerent to the king. Dying in 177-1, his sons and sons-in-law succeeded to his 
influence with the Indian tribes, and hated American independence with the bit- 
terest hatred. Brandt and his savage warriors, Butler and his still more savage 
tory rangers, swept the Mohawk Valley and its adjacent hillsides as with the 
besom of destruction ; farms were laid waste, whole towns were blotted out, and 
the wolf howled again where before had curled the smoke of happy homesteads. 

And now, would it appear strange if New York had failed to send her full quota 
of soldiers to the continental army? Look at the tories swarming in her midst, 
her capital ground under the heel of the invader, her populous districts cowering 
under the guns of a British fleet, and her borders, where the father, when he left 
his home, never hoped to see his wife or children more, would it be strange, I saj', 
if, upon the rolls of the regular army. New York had been found deficient? 

The fact is that out of the thirteen States onlj- three furnished their full quota 
of troops to the continental army; of these New York was one; out of the thirteen 
only two furnished their full quota of money and supplies, and of these New York 
was one. She was the only one of the thirteen that furnislied her full quota of 
men, money and supplies. In the light of these facts it seems to me that when 
the historians talk so much about New York's tories, they might add a word or 
two about her soldiers. It would be but justice, although we take no discredit 
from the one, and we claim no especial honor from the other. As Hamilton 
pointed out long ago, the preponderance of our soldiers was due simply to our 
geographical position. Some of the outlying Colonies which never felt the foot 
of the invader, took no interest in the war, save as a sentiment. But New York 
was the Flanders of America. To her the war was a bitter, stern rcalitj-. During 
the year 1777, whin the Colony became the State, there was not a county within 
her borders that did not re-echo to the tread of British troojjs, and yet this year 
ushered in by misfortune was the turning point of the Revolution. And here just 
at the turning j)oint stands the battle which wc commemorate to-day. 

The war thus far had brought a series of disasters to the armies of the rebellious 
colonists. The Engli.sh caliinet determined to make a grand elTort and terminate 
the struggle. New York was then iis always the key of the continent. It was 



102 Centennial Celebrations. 

resolved to send out three expeditions for its capture ; one under the commander- 
in-chief, to start from New York and follow the Hudson, one under Bui-goyne, to 
march from the North by the way of Lake Champlain, and the third under St. 
Leger, to start from Oswego and go down the Mohawk Valley. The three armies 
were to unite at Albany when their work was done. None of them ever reached 
their destination. 

When the news was sounded through these valleys that St. Leger with a force 
of British troops, tories and Indian allies was on the march, the whole popula- 
tion were at once aroused. On the way from Oswego stood Fort Schuyler (the 
old Fort Stanwix of the French and Indian war). St. Leger saw that he must 
take this fort or nothing could be gained. When he encamped before it a sum- 
mons went out to the loyal men of New York to hasten to its aid. 

How they obeyed the summons you have already heard. Here along this valley 
lived the men whom the tories had counted on for allies. They were not loud 
talkers, but in 1775 early in the struggle they had said -ndth quiet detei-mination, 
" It is our fixed resolution to be free or die." Now the time had come for them 
to redeem the pledge, and nobly was it done. Each farmer seized his old trusty 
musket and hastened to the place of meeting. The need was urgent and the time 
was so brief that the Scotch-Irish of Cherry Valley, always foremost in patriotic 
work, almost lost the honor of sharing in the battle. Two of their number, how- 
ever. Colonel Samuel Campbell, and Major, afterward Colonel Samuel Clyde, 
were in attendance at a meeting of the Committee of Safety held at Palatine. 
Lieutenant Robert Campbell, a brother of the Colonel, lived half way up the 
Cherry Valley hills. At the first summons he hurried to the Mohawk and was just 
in time to join his brother and Major Clyde. Together they fought in the regi- 
ment, of Colonel Cox, which crossed the ravine before the attack and there bore 
the brunt of the battle. Lieutenant Campbell was left dead upon the field, the 
other two lived to render good service in the coming years when Brant and his 
tory allies so cruelly avenged the disaster of Oriskany. 

Of the events of the battle I need not speak ; you have heard them already. 
Officers and privates fought together, each handled the rifle, and from behind a 
friendly tree, x^icked oil the savage Indians or the still more savage tories. When 
the day closed, the expedition of St. Leger had received its death blow. His 
Indian allies faded into thin air, the Mohawk Valley was saved, its patriotic 
soldiers flocked to Saratoga, and the grip aromid the throat of Burgoyne was 
tightened, till his army dropped like a lifeless corpse. Then came assistance from 
France, in money, soldiers and supplies, and the fortunes of war were turned. 

Have we not the right to say that New York should be proud of its record in 
the revolutionary struggle? Have not the descendants of these men who fought 
at Oriskany a right to be proud as they tread the soil made sacred by the blood 
of their fathers? 

But gatherings like this serve a higher purpose than merely to foster local pride. 
A people, like an individual, may live so entirely in the past as to be useless in 
the present, as a man may expend all his energies in nursing Ills ancestral fame — 
but we have swung to the opposite extreme. 

" History," says Bacon, " makes men wise; " but it does much more, it makes 
them patriotic. The Greeks fought more bravely as they thought of Thermop}'l8e 
and Marathon. We sliall live more nobly as we think of our heroic ancestors, who, 
by a contest extending over nearly two centuries, laid broad and deep the founda- 
tions of our freedom. 



Okiskany. 103 

At the close of Major Campbell's adckess, Mr. Seymour called upon 
Mr. Feederick Pfeiffek, drummer uf the Old Utica Band, to show 
what the captured snare drum aljovc alluded to was capable of. Mr. 
Pfeiffer came on the platform aud inade the old drum show to tlie 
best possible advantage. 

On the stand, among the veterans of the War of 1S12, was Philo 
WuiTE, a grandson of Hugh White, the founder of Whitestown, who 
made the following address : 



ADDEESS OF PIIILO WHITE. 

Mr. President : — It may seem presuming for an humble individual to obtrude 
his voicu upon tlu: attention of the nnmense a.ssemblage of our fellow-countrymen 
by whom we are now surrounded, especially in the presence of so manj' of the 
eminent men of om- Emphe State, illustrious alike for then- taleuts, their ■s'irtues, 
and their expansive patriotism. But, honored as a comrade of the conscript veter- 
ans of om* second War of Independence, and standing here as the sole representa- 
tive of my town and my lineage among them, I may crave the privilege of rever- 
ently offering my aspii-ations to heaven for having been mercifully spared with life 
and health to witness, and to participate in, this magnificent and impressive 
American jubilee, so appropriately inaugurated on this the one hundredth anniver- 
sary of the ever glorious battle of Oriskany. 

And I am sure I correctly interpret the sentiment of all my fellow-townsmen, in 
giving expression to their grateful emotions for the distinguished honor this day's 
impressively grand demonstration imparts to our good old town of Wliitestown, 
whose territorial expansion whilom stretched from the Gennan Flats to the Great 
Lakes, her first town meeting having been held at the Cayuga Ferrj'. She was the 
primeval town of all Western New York, and the nucleus of the earliest permanent 
civilized community within that broad region of our now Empire State. It was 
within the area of AVhitestowu's present circumscribed limits, that the memorable 
battle of Oriskany was fought, and her sons have been the nm'sing custodians of 
that ensanguined field. The soil of that battle ground was enriched by a suffusion 
of the blood of the patriot heroes who fell thereon ; and to their indomitable 
prowess the primal liberties of our common country are essentially indebted. The 
fame of their courageous achievements consequently fills a notable page in Wliites- 
town's historic annals. 

Animated by the recital of these inspiring reminiscences, re-exhilarated by inhal- 
ing the patriot atmosphere that pervades the vast concourse of a grateful people 
who have to-day come up to this consecrated battle-field, to honor the heroism, 
and to embalm a remembrance of the thrice glorious deeds of their ancestors, I 
may be pardoned a.s a journalist of " auld lang syne," for proposing tliat all the 
essential proceedings connected with this great Centennial Anniversary Jubilee, 
including the very masterly address of ex-Governor Seymoitr, tlic president of 
the d.iy, and the inspiringly eloquent speeches of the other distinguished gentle- 
men who have addressed this vast auditory, be printed in pamphlet or book form, 



104 Centennial Celebrations. 

so as to impart to the battle of Oriskany, in au enduring shape, that prominence 
in the calendar of the ever-living achievements incident to our first War of Inde- 
pendence, to which its universal!}' conceded importance entitles it; and whereby 
the rectitude of history may be vindicated, and the name of Oriskany be ranged 
alongside of those of Saratoga and Yorktown, as theaters of the most momentous 
events in the great revolutionary struggle of our grandsires, that gave bii'th to 
ours, the empire republic of the American hemisphere. 

With these discursive remarks, Sir. President, I beg to submit my proposition 
to the consideration of this meeting, or the general Permanent Committee, defer- 
ring the manner and form of disposing of the matter to those who are younger 
and more expert in modern journalism than myself. 

The exercises were closed by the reading, by Mr. Seymouk, of tlie 
following poem, prepared for the occasiou by Eev. Dr. Chaules D. 
Helmek, D. D., of Chicago : 



PJilAN" TO OEISKAJSTT. 

POEM BY EEY. CHARLES DOWNES HELMER, D. D. 

Beleaguered men of Stanwix, brave as those 
Who faced a million of their foes 

At old Thermopylae ; 
Good cheer to you upon the wild frontier ! 
For citizens in arms draw near 

Across Oriskany. 

But hark ! amidst the forest shades the crash 
Of arms, the savage yell — with flash 

Of gory tomahawk ; 
For Johnson's Royal-Greens, and Leger's men, 
And Brant's Red Fiends, are in that glen 

Of dark Oriskany. 

From down the valley, where the Mohawk flows, 
Were hurrying on to meet their foes 

The patriot yeomanry; 
For Gansevoort within his fortress lay, 
In peril and besieged that day. 

Beyond Oriskany. 

As men who fight for home and child and wife, 
As men oblivious of lite 

In holy martyrdom. 
The Yeomen of the Valley fought that day, 
Throughout thy fierce and deadly fray — 

Blood-red Oriskany. 



Oriskany. 105 

From rock mid tree and clump of twisted brush 
The hissing gusts of battlo rush — 

Hot breathed and liorriblc ! 
The roar, and smoke, like nust on stormy seas, 
Sweej) through thy sjjlintered trees — 

Ilard-fougbt Oriskany. 

Heroes are born in such a chosen hour; 
From common men tbej' rise and tower, 

Like thee, brave Herkimer I 
Who wounded, steedless, still beside the beech 
Cheered on thy men, with sword and speech, 

In grim Oriskany. 

Now burst the clouds above the battle roar. 

And from the ])itying skies down pom- 
Swift floods tumultuous ; 

Then fires of strife unquenched flame out again, 

Drenching with hot and bloody rain 
Thy soil, Oriskany. 

But ere the sun went toward the tardj' night. 
The Valley then beheld the light 

Of freedom's victory ; 
And wooded Tryon snatched from British arms 
The empire of a million farms — 

On bright Oriskany. 

The guns of Stanwix thundered to the skies: 
The rescued w^lderness replies ; 

Forth dash the garrison ! 
And routed Tories, witli their savage aids. 
Sink reddening through the sullied shades— 

From lost Oriskany. 

Behold, Burgoyne ! with hot and hating eyes, 
The New World's flag at last o'erflies 

Your ancient Heraldry ; 
For over Stanwix floats triumphantly 
The rising Banner of the Free — 

Beyond Oriskany. 

A hundred years have passed since then; 
And hosts now rally there again — 

To crown the century ; 
The proud posterity of noble men 
WTio conqneral in the bloody glen 

Of famed Oriskany. 

14 



106 Centennial Celebrations. 



AT THE EAST STAND. 

The ampliitlieatre in which tliis platform was situated rises from the 
ravine where the contest toolc place. The stand faces the east, the 
brook flowing immediately in front of it. On the other side of the 
brook a goodly number of seats were placed, and directly beyond them 
rises the steep side of the hill, curving around to the right. The sun 
shone brightly, and umbrellas were about as numerous as the ladies. 
The uniforms of the soldiery, and the red jackets of the fire laddies, 
served to add variety and brilliancy to the scene. 

At 2.30 p. M. the meeting at the east stand was called to order by 
lion. James Stevens, Mayor of Eome, chairman. A number of the 
veterans of the war of 1S12 occupied chairs directly in the rear of the 
speakers. 

Mr. Stevens first introduced to the audience Hon. Claekson IST. 
Potter, of New York. 

ADDEESS OF HON. CLAEKSON N. POTTEE. ' 

I was born in the Mohawk Valley, and feel therefore a natural interest in this 
celebration of an event upon which the peace and preservation of that valley 
depended; in which the men of the valley bore such noble part; and from which 
resulted so largely the success of the American revolution. And yet I confess 
that it was only within the last few years that I was at all aware of the importance 
of the battle of Oriskany. One day at dinner in "Washington some reference was 
made to the battle of Saratoga as one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world, 
when my friend, Judge Camiibell, called attention to the importance of the battle of 
Oriskany, and its effect upon the result at Saratoga. 

Then for the first time I properly understood how the third of the great move- 
ments which comprised the British plan.for separating and subjugating the colonies 

— a plan ably conceived, and so far triumphantly executed — liad been frustrated 
by the courage and tenacity and devotion of the men of the Mohawk valley. 

I subsequently sought — as Judge Campbell had sought some years before — to 
obtain from Congress a suitable appropriation to carry into efiect the resolution of 
the Continental Congress directing the erection of a monument to the memory of 
General Herkimer. I regret that my effort was not successful. I trust that your 
celebration of that important engagement will furnish the occasion fur another and 
more successful movement in that regard. 

When we recall the power and influence, the wealth and numbers of New York 

— when we remember that she has a population of over five millions of people, 
that she stanils far away the first of all the States in her capital, in her commerce. 



Oriskany 107 

in lier exchanges, and is even first in tlie value of her manufactures, and in tlie 
value of her agricultural products as well, it is, indeed, difficult to realize that 
within a period but little more than tlie life-time of some now here, she was a 
poor colon}' of less tlian 200,000 people, inferior in luunbcrs and importance to 
Virginia, or Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts, or North Carolina. 

This prodigious growth she owes in part to her possession of the only gi-cat 
water way between the ocean and the lakes, and in part to her great seaport and 
to her central position between New England and the South, which have given 
her people a vast commerce and developed in them a great activity, and at the 
same time a large liberality of thought and opinion. 

But holding this great natural way within lier borders it was early foreseen 
what greatness was in store for her. She might have kept aloof from the revolu- 
tionary struggle to which many of her people were opposed, and seated upon this 
highway she might have levied tolls upon the rising traffic between the seaboard 
and the "West, until she had amassed riches beyond the tales of the Orient. But 
she preferred — wth a liberality which Sparks, the historian, has said was almost 
\vithout precedent in history — rather to cast in her lot \vith her sister colonies, and 
bear her share in the common struggle and the common risk. And although lier com- 
missioners had no authority to join in the Declaration of Independence, it was no 
sooner communicated to her provincial Legislature then assembled at AVhite Plains, 
than they at once adopted and proclaimed it. 

How large a share in the stniggles, the bui-dens, and the trials of this nation 
since then New York has had we all know. Is it too much to say that no one of 
the great crises to wluch the- republic has been exposed would have been success- 
fully and triumpjiantly passed had not New York been on the side that prevailed? 
To-day, while she is first of all the States in wealth, in prosperity, and in linaiicial 
power, if she is not first in her influence in the councils of the nation, it is, I think, 
because her representatives have failed to ajjpreciate the necessity and the advan- 
tage of combination and of tinion there. One of the most prominent statesmen of 
the time — himself from New England — said tome not long ago, that " if New 
York only sent her best men to the national councils and kept them there, and they 
were united, .she might dictate the policy of the United States ; that lying as she did 
between the extremities of the («untry, in territory and opinion, and with her all- 
reaching traffic and capital, she might, by proper concert among her people, con- 
trol ideas as well as trade, and give direction to the legislation of the country." 

For myself, then, I welcome every occasion which recalls the sufferings and sac- 
rifices, and the dignity and prosperity of this State. I have, perhaps, overmuch 
pride in her character and history. TluMe has always been, as it seems to me, a 
high purpose and a noble liberality in the conduct of New York. Hers were 
among the first declarations for individual liberty and for the right of the colonies 
to regulate their local affairs; hers has been always a most earnest devotion to 
national unity; hers the justest and most catholic com'sc, whether in her treatment 
of her own ])eoi)le, of strangers coming within her borders, or of her sister States; 
hers iiuhred always a large and generous spirit wliich, it seems to me, may \vell be 
emulated. 

We do well, then, to renew the memory of our fathers' days — days of want 
and trial, of courage and devotion, to recall, in these times of luxury and extrava- 
gance and speculation, their .steadiness, and thrift, and economy, and indu.stry; 
here upon the field of one of the bloodiest l)attles of the Revolution to remember 
their courage and sacrifices, as only a few days since at Kingston wc had occasion 



108 Centennial Celebrations. 

to recall their wisdom and judgment and State craft. We do well also to realize 
how largely and wisely they builded, and how great and noble has become the 
State which they founded ; and, grateful for her past prosperity and worthy his- 
tory, to resolve to carry forward her greatness, to foster the well being of her peo- 
ple, and their pride in and devotion to the State ; so that she may always be found 
in the van of this great nation — first in nmnbers, in wealth, in power and in 
virtue. 

At the close of liis speecli three cheers were proposed for Mr. Pot- 
tee, and were given with a hearty good will. Hev. Dr. Haven, Chan- 
cellor of Syracuse University, was then introduced. 



ADDEESS OF EEV. DE. HAYEI^. 

One hundred years ago to-day on these grounds was fought a desperate contest. 
It requires some power of imagination to reproduce the scene. The population of 
the United States was not then much more than half as great as the present popu- 
lation of the State of New York. The population of New York then was not 
equal to a single county now. The region round about this spot was mostly a 
wilderness and a swamp. A few hardy adventurers had found their way to these 
regions. North of us, along Lake George and by the tributaries of the Hudson, 
was General Burgoyne, with a thoroughly disciplined army of about 8,000 men, 
accompanied with thousands of Indians and a few American tories. 

West of us, making their way from Oswego toward Fort Stanwix, were Colonel 
St. Leger and a company of infantry and some eight hundred Indians, and a num- 
ber of tories, and some regular British soldiery. General Herkimer and about 
eight hundred American militia hastily armed, were on their way to aid the 
Americans in Fort Stan-n-ix. All at once, without a moment's warning, they were 
attacked by the British and Indian foes and a desperate hand to hand conflict fol- 
lowed. Nearly half the Americans fell. General Herkimer himself was wounded, 
and leaning against a stump cheered on his men. They sold their lives dearly. 
In the meantime Colonel Willet sallied out of the Fort with two hundred men and 
destroyed the Indian camp. The darkness of night ended the conflict. 

It looked like a success to the British, but it was really a success to the Ameri- 
cans. The British and Indians were both disheartened. They stormed Fort 
Stan-\\'ix but failed, and within two weeks retreated from this part of the State, 
and in a short time the whole of Burgoyne's army, wearied by failures and beaten 
on the battle-field, surrendered their arms. 

The battle of Oriskany was really one, and a most important one, in the many 
stubborn conflicts which led to the surrender of Burgoyne, and the discomfiture of 
the British in the general plan to sweep down from the north, and meet their forces 
under Howe and Clinton, in New York city, and thus hold the entire country. 

The sun has -iNdtnessed on this planet many battles. This earth has drunk the 
blood, and this air has dissolved the corpses of more men and women and children 
slain Ijy the red hand of war, than now walk or breathe on its surface. Yes, 
enou<>-h, were they resurrected, to populate the earth far more densely than now, to 
fill every city and to break the silence of every desert with the hum of convcrsa- 



Oriskany. 109 

tion and the noise of Inisy life. If men slioukl celebrate only the centennials of all 
the battles as great as Oriskany, all ninnkiiul woiikl have nothing else to do — 
except, perhaps, occasionally to break into a new fight to keep up the supply. 
Why, then, celebrate the centennial of Oriskany? 

The value of battles is not to be estimated by their magnitude. There have 
been contests of large ai-mies, ending in the carnage and death of uncounted thou- 
sands, when the object of neitlier party rose higher than plunder, and when to a 
wise and impartial observer in the heavens, it would have been a matter of perfect 
indifference which should gain the victor}'. All through the days of ancient history 
a great majorit_y of wars have been waged on the principle that might makes right, 
and that the physically strong need make no apology for enslaving the weak. The 
walls of Babylon were cemented with human blood. The Macedonian empire was 
a hasty conglomerate structure, thrown up by an invading army. Rome sent her 
standards to the ends of the earth that all provinces might furnish fields for plunder 
to the chief families of the city. The wars of modern Europe have been struggles 
to prevent despotism bj- maintaining a balance of power. 

War without just cause is wholesale murder. War that could well have been 
avoided is criminal manslaughter. 

But there have been times when men have been compelled to die — to become 
slaves — or to ami themselves, submit to discipline and smite down the opposers 
at the risk of their own lives — and then war becomes just and noble, and the 
men who show msdom and bravery and perseverance deserve the plaudits of their 
fellows, and the eulogy of posterity. 

Such was the war of the Israelites for the defense of their country against 
Rome ; such was the war of Great Britain when invaded by France and Spain, 
and such was the war of our fathers when an attemjit was made by the most 
powerful nation of the earth to rob them of their ancestral privileges and reduce 
them to vassalage and shame. The battle of Oriskany was not a great battle ; but a 
small sharp blow, well directed between the eyes of an unjust foe, well deserves 
to be remembered. 

For what did our fathers fight? For what did our mothers run the Indicts in 
their homely molds, take down the muskets and putting them into the hands of 
their husbands and sons, say with tears in their ej'es, but courage in their hearts — 
" Go and drive away the Invading foe? " 

Did our fathers fight for wages, for bounty, for plunder? Their wages would 
not meet their immediate wants. Their uniform was rags. There was nothing to 
plunder in their own hulf-wilderness home. 

They fought for principle. Thej' fought for self-defense. They fought for the 
freedom which their own ancestors had obtained by immigi-ation to the new 
world, and had transmitted to them. 

It has been asserted by some loose tliinkers that the American Revolution was a 
rebellion, and that Washington was only a successful rebel. This is a libel on his- 
tory. It is less than half a truth, and, therefore, in effect a total lie. In the 
beginning of the contest Great Britain rebelled. A solemn compact had been 
made with the thirteen colonics, one by one, when they were founded, that they 
should have the right of self-government. This contract was broken by Great 
Britain. She anniillcd the cliarters under which our fathers had been allured into 
the wilderness. Great Britain and France had waged a fierce contest in which 
France lost her American colonies, and then the English colonies in America were 
unjustly called upon to pay a part of tlie expense. They declined, unless their 



110 Centennial Celebeations. 

own representatives could dpterminc what shoiiUl be paid and how it slioiild be 
collected. Their rights were sacrificed. An irrcpealable contract was annulled. 
They were treated as slaves, not as Englishmen. Foreign armies were liired to 
fight against them. The Indian savages were bribed and coaxed to attack them, 
and the feeble thirteen colonies found themselves alone in the world, unprotected, 
unaided. France had not yet come to their help. 

Then there was but one alternative — submission, wliii-h meant slavery; or 
resistance, which was called rebellion, but which was really a war for original 
rights. 

Let us not think harshly of the cousins of oiu' grandparents, who lived across 
the Atlantic ocean. There was a much wider gulf between the government and 
the people of Great Britain in ITT?, than now in 1S77. Then the government 
was a small aristocracy and the mass of the people were unrepresented. The 
great body of the intelligent people of Great Britain sympathized with the 
American Colonists. Since that time the English people have passed through a 
greater revolution at home than the American people did in the war of 1776. 
Why, even fifty years after the American Revolution the people were in a state of 
semi-servitude. As a proof of it, let me quote only one sentence from an interest- 
ing book just published : The Life and Letters of Lord Jtacaulay, by his nephew, 
G. Otto Trevelyan, JM. P., p. 150: "At that time (1830), the press was gagged in 
England and throttled in Scotland. Every speech or sermon or pampMct, from 
the substance of which a cro\vn lawyer could torture a semblance of sedition, sent 
its author to the jail, the hulks or the pillory." 

Fifty years before this time, that is in 1777, the French people, the German 
people, the Italian people, as well as the Russian people were serfs, and the Eng- 
lish people but little better. 

That series of little battles, of which Oriskany was one, was fought not merely 
for America, but for all mankind. It was to maintain the compact of England 
with the people, for the advantage of the people. Hitherto, sovereigns when in 
danger would make great promises to the people, but when in safety forget them. 
The American people were determined that the old compact should be kept. It 
is an oft quoted pro\erb : 

** When the devU was sick, the devil a mouk "would be, 
But when the devil was well, the devil a monk was he!" 

So when the kings were sick, the kings very kind would be ; but when the 
kings got well — there was a new reckoning! 

War is usually founded on an awful mistake. So was it in tliis case. Great 
Britain did not know her own colonists. She undervalued them. She practically 
despised them. She thought them half-civilized or less. She expected with a 
small, compact, and a well trained army to walk through America from Ciuiada to 
South Carolina, like a housewife sweeping a kitchen. 

Burgoyne was a scholar, and a gentleman, and a brave soldier. He did splendid 
service for his country before he came to America and afterward. Americans can 
respect him. But his jnoclamation made while in command of the British army 
in America, which surrendered to Gates, was so inflated and bomliastic as to 
remind \is of the military bulletins of Turkey or Jlexico, or of the declaration 
nuide by the king of Dahomey with a trumpet after his dinner, that all the rest of 
the world may now eat, their master having dined ! 

Let me quote a few words to verify my criticism: 



Ohiskany. Ill 

"At the head of troops in the full powers of health, discipline and valor, 
determined to strike when necessary," etc. 

" Let not people be led to disregard it by considering their distance from the 
immediate situation of my camp. I have but to give stretch to tlie Indian forces 
under my direction, and they amount to thousands, to overtake the hardened 
enemies of Great Britain," etc. 

But again I say, friends, let us have no hard words for the Bintish people of 
that day. They and our fathers were of one bone and of one flesh. It was 
simply the lot of our fathers to tight the battle for the whole of their race, and 
for all mankind. Had they fallen, tl\e hands on the dial of human history would 
have stopped — nay, been thrust backward more than a century. Tliey succeeded, 
and all Europe lifted herself up from her abasement, and a many-tongued shout 
of exultation arose from her people. The star spangled banner took its place 
among the flags of the nations — representing not despotism, but freedom and a 
country, first in liberty, and first in progress among the nations of tlie eaith. It 
is the flag of hope and the flag of promise. It is the ensign of freedom and 
universal suffrage. Thank God it does not float over a slave, nor over a man not 
permitted to vote — except he be a violator of the law. 

Who were the people upon whom God had imposed this responsibility ? Bj' 
a sifting process the strongest and best specimens of European people were 
selected and brought to these sliores. The religious, the freedom-loving, the 
adventurous, the strong. Tliey were poor. They lived in log houses and ate 
from wooden dishes, and their food w-as primitive and coarsely cooked. They 
were clad in homespun and vdih little variety. Pianos were unkno^^'n. Spinning 
■wheels were universal, blowing machines had never been heard of, but sickles 
were in common iise. Wooden ploughs and hand flaUs helped de\-elop the mus- 
cles of the men, and tlie only sewing machines were vitalized by good human 
souls, and the men particularly liked to call them their own. 

But beneath the rustic simplicity of those days might be seen tlie truest man- 
hood and womanhood on eartli. The men governed the State and the women 
presided in the family. 

A township is the mother of the State, and the family is the primordial element 
or nucleus of the township. 

In 1777, the j\jnerican people were undoubtedly the best educated and the 
most religious population on the face of the round earth. One who could not read 
and WTite was as rare as an idiot — and indeed, the two were regarded about as 
one. The school-house and the mceting-Iiouse were as universal as the fire-])lacc 
or the table or any other essential thing. It was a Bible-respecting people. It 
was a self-respecting people. Such a people cannot consent to jield the God- 
given privileges of their fathers. 

But, friends, the battles were fought ancl the victory won before we came on 
the stage of action. Some of us can remember the stories we lieard in our cliild- 
hood from the lips of the old veterans, who seemed to our eyes and ears to bcUmg 
to another race of men — among us, but not of us. Some of them were poorly 
clad; some of them, I am sorry to say, did not seem to be wholly ignorant of the 
nature and effects of hard cider and New England rum. But whether poor or 
rich, ])rivates or officers, how we used to venerate them, and love to gather 
around them to hear their tliousand time told tales ! They were regarded not 
merely as soldiers, but as saviors ; not merely as conquerors, but creatore of liberty 
and life. 



112 Centennial Celebrations. 

It seems so reasonable that a people should choose their own rulers and make 
their own laws, that it may be fancied tliat it would have been brought about had 
Americans not declared and earned their indeisendeuce. But it surpasses human 
sagacity to see how it could have been done. After the American Revolution 
came the fierce and original French Revolution, which shattered the most terrible 
desjiotism of earth into fragments that can never be gathered ; the quiet English 
Revolution that has made the limited monarchy of Great Britain almost as free as 
a republic ; revolutions in Italy and Austria and in other lands — and to-day, 
everywhere the peoples are maintaining that all governments proceed from them 
and are established for their welfare. 

But have we not a work at home to do ? What mean these thunder murmur- 
ings of a contest, not between labor and capital, but between laborers and the 
employers of laborers ? Statesmen must not quietly assume that " Avhatever is, is 
right." The strongest government in the world is a republic, but no. government 
on earth can always repress disorder if the great majority believe tliat they are 
wronged. It is a time then for sober tliought. 

Every generation has its own work. We cannot live by eulogizing our fathers 
and mothers. Our eyes are not in the backs of our heads. Let us build the monu- 
ments of the dead, but let us be quick about it, and spend the most of the time 
and the most of our money in building houses for the living. "A living dog is 
better than a dead lion." But let us raise living lions. The intellect of om* states- 
men should be employed, not in defending the past, but in devising means 
wliereby the present can be improved. Let the American Republic be alive and 
progressive alike in every part, so that the Bunker Hills and Benningtons and 
Oriskanies and Saratogas of all time may tell the same story of devotion to prin- 
ciple, to freedom and to right. 

At tlio close of Dr. Haven's address, three rousing cheers were 
given for the speaker, and cries of " good, capital," were heard on 
every side. 

Hon. Samuel Earl, of Herkimer, was the next speaker introduced. 
He prefaced his speech by the remark that in order to he heard well 
and properly, he would need a voice equal to that of all the Indians 
and artillery here congregated one hundred years ago. 



ADDEESS OF HON. SAMUEL EAKL 

We have assembled here to-day, iipon this historic ground, to celebrate the one 
hundredth anniversary of the Oriskany battle; and to do honor, also, to the 
memory of the patriots of the Mohawk Valley, by whose valor and indomitable 
courage the battle was won. And as a descendant of one of the prominent actors 
in that fierce and terrible struggle, I take especial pride in joining with you in 
doing honor to tlie memory and brave achievements of o>ir patriotic ancestors, 
who met upon tliese grounds tlie cruel and merciless invaders of their soil, and 
drove them back. To many of you it must be especially interesting, as I confess 



Oriskany. 113 

it is to me, to view the grounds where, amid the lionifl din of savage warfare and 
savage butchery, your ancestors and mine fought undismayed one of the most 
important battles in the War of the Revolution. 

It was here, upon this spot, that the first gi-eat blow was struck, and cheek 
given to the grand scheme, inaugurated by the tory ministry of Great Britain for 
the campaign of 1777, which was intended and expected to accomplish the com- 
plete and final subjugation of the American colonies. The scheme was a grand 
one, and well planned, and it appeared to those planning it and to those intrusted 
to carry it out, that it would certainly succeed. It was confidently expected that 
the means set in motion for the campaign of that year would be fully adequate to 
the task of successfully crushing out the rebellion of the colonies. The plan, 
in short, was to put in motion a large and overpowering force, well equipped 
and supplied with materials of war, from different points, under different 
leaders, and all destined to meet at the same point, which was Albany. 
St. Leger and his forces were to proceed by way of Oswego to the Jlohawk 
Valley, and thence to Albany, while at the same time General Burgoyne 
and his arinj' were to proceed by way of Lake Champlain, and join St. Leger at 
jUbany, and to meet there also Sir Henry Clinton, who was to arrive with his 
forces from New York, by way of the Hudson river. The plan was, bj' this cam- 
paign, to di\ide the colonies — to cut off New York and New England from the 
colonics south, and by that means to crush out the spirit of liberty at the north, 
and finally oveipower the colonies south. The success of the campaign would 
most likely have changed the tide of our affairs. But the expeditions all failed, 
and the first great blow to that well planned campaign was given upon the sjjot 
where we are assembled to-day. That blow was struck by the patriotic militia of 
Tryon coimty, under their brave General, Nicholas Herkimer. 

It will be remembered that the year 1777 found the inhabitants of the ^lohawk 
Valley desponding and despairing of success. Many of the hitherto ardent sup- 
porters of the patriot cause favored giving up the contest. They had endured the 
struggle for two years, and their first ardor for the cause of liberty had, in a 
measure, died out; and in all parts of the valley there were disaffected persons. 
Many had laid down their arms and renewed their allegiance to the crown, and 
become loyalists. While many others had taken their arms and gone over to the 
enemy, and become the cruel tones of the Revolution. This defection to the 
cause of liberty was confined to no particular locality; it divided neighborhoods 
and even families ^- brothers and parents often took different sides, and through- 
out Tryon county there wei'e more or less of tory adherents — of tory sympathy, 
and of tory hopes and expectations. All tliis led to frequent outbursts of passion 
and exasperated feelings between the inhabitants, entertaining different jioliticaJ 
views and opposing sympathies — and as well may be supposed, an intense feeling 
of hatred and animosity soon gi'cw up between the inhabitants thus situated, and 
ties of former friendships, and of consanguinity even, were obliterated and lost 
amid the savage feeling, suspicions and want of charity engendered between the 
parties. Just at this time, and when the feeling to which I have referred was at 
its height, and when many of the bravest men in the valley of the Mohawk began 
to feel that it was useless to jjrolong the struggle, St. Leger made his appearance 
at Oswego, with the motley forces under his command, amounting to about two 
thousand. The appearance of tliis formidable force at Oswego, and its destina- 
tion were no sooner made known to General Herkimer, and to the Conimittee of 
15 



114 Centennial Celebrations. 

Safety of Tryon comity, than he issued a stirring proclamation to tlic people of the 
county, well calculated to arouse their faltering patriotism, and to dismay the dis- 
affected. It concluded in these well chosen words: "Not doubting that the 
Almighty power, upon our humble prayers and sincere trust in Him, ■nT.ll then 
generously succor our arms in battle for our just cause; and victory cannot fail on 
our side." It had its intended effect and was responded to by the militia of 
Tryon county in the same patriotic spirit in which it was issued by their brave and 
patriotic general. But it must not be understood that all to whom it was 
addressed obeyed its call or flew to his standard — far from it. Many, and 
some even of the brave general's own family relatives sought the stand- 
ard of St. Leger. It is certain that one brother at least had gone over to the 
enemy, and that an influential brother-in-law was then ^vith St. Leger, and that 
other near and influential relatives were then open enemies of the patriot cause. 
But by his exertions, and at his command there assembled at Fort Dayton, now 
Herkimer village, by the fourth of August, 1777, about eight hundred militia, 
with their officers, taken from the whole body of the county, from Schenectady 
westward ; and there also the Committee of Safety for Tryon county met and 
joined the militia. That was their appointed place of rendezvous, and there they 
met for the well-understood purpose of marching at once to the relief of Fort 
Stanwix — which, as they were informed, was then invested by St. Leger, with a 
superior force. They inidorstood that unless relief came, and came quickly, the 
beleaguered garrison would surrender, and that with its surrender their homes 
would be sacked by a ruthless and savage enemy, in a victorious march down the 
Mohawk Valley. This the brave mUitia and their officers, and the members of the 
Committee of Safety, who volunteered to accompany them, well understood. 
And they felt and imderstood also the supreme urgency of immediately marching 
to the relief of the fort. The stirring proclamation which had been issued to 
them, and the appeals of the Committee of Safety, all meant haste to go to the 
relief of the fort — haste to strike a blow which would turn back the invaders of 
their soU — and in haste they marched from their place of rendezvous on the 
fourth of Atigust. They marched ■with alacritj^ and with resolute hearts, j-earning 
to drive back the enemy and save theii- homes from pillage and fire. Their route 
laj' on the north side of the river as far as Utica, where they crossed, and on the 
night of the fifth they encamped at or near the present site of Whitestown — and 
there, on the morning of the sixth, occurred the scene between the brave General 
and some of his officers and members of the Committfee of Safety, which is so 
well known to history. And we do well to-day, as we look back to that period 
when so many and so great dangers threatened the lives and the homes of our 
patriotic ancestors, to consider, as well as we can, the situation just as it was, and 
as it appeared to them, and then to say in our hearts whether they were not right, 
as they saw the situation, in demanding that they should be led on to meet the 
enemy. Their general, who had up to this time been urging haste, now proposed to 
wait for reinforcements ; and a counsel of officers and of the members of the Commit- 
tee of Safety was held, at which the question of delay was vehemently discussed. 
None can say that the advice of General Herkimer was not, to say the least, pru- 
dent; and none ought to say that it was prompted bj' any thing less than a proper 
regard for the safety of his neighbors and friends who so promptly answered to his 
call ; and none can say that it was through cowardice or treachery that he preferred 
to wait for reinforcements. It was seemingly well to do so, as Arnold was at that 
moment on his way with ample force to join him. But the brave men who dis- 



Oriskany. 115 

agreed with him, and insisted in such strong language that the on'nard movement 
should be made at once, acted in good faith, and from what appeared to them a 
necessity. Thej- started out to relieve a fort greatly imperilled, and to tliem it 
seemed that they should not halt until they had accomplished their purpose. 
They could not understand why they should wait for reinforcements. They felt 
and believed they were fully able to successfully cope with the enemy, and were 
ready to do it. It was unjust, however, to assail the motives of their General 
because he felt it prudent to wait to be reinforced ; and yet when we consider 
that there were assembled the very best men of the valley, the safest and most 
intelligent advisers, fatlicrs, sons and brothers who had left theu- homes and their 
families unprotected in the rear, we can well see, that as they looked upon them- 
selves, they saw no need of reinforcements. They felt strong enough, and they 
were strong enough to drive back the enemy, and they were ready to do it, and 
to do it at once. The subject of delaying was a surprise to them, and they could 
not understand it in their impatience to save the fort, so important in the defense 
of their homes. The intelligent members of the Committee of Safety, and the 
officers there assembled, doubtless knew of the defection of many of the brave 
General's near relatives, and the fact that some of them were then vnth St. Leger. 
To them, in view of all the circumstances, the proposed delay seemed unwise and 
cowardly. Their impatience could not be restrained by the General, and he gave 
the command to march, which was instantly obeyed, not by cowards, but by brave, 
determined and earnest men. In my judgment there was no mistake made in 
giving the command. It was proper to do so. The mistake made was that the 
line of march was not formed with such precautions against surprises of the 
enemy as should have been takcu. Who was to blame for this, it is now impos- 
sible to tell. "We cannot and dare not charge the blame upon the brave General, 
for we do not know what his orders were upon this subject. But this is certain, 
that the necessary military precautions against a suqirise were for some cause omit- 
ted, and to this must we attribute the fearful havoc and loss of life, which that 
eventful day witnessed upon these historic grounds. Tliat nothing was lost or 
omitted through cowardice or treacherj- on the part of the brave General or the 
officers under him, is equally certain. They were all brave. 

The misfortune to the rear guard under Colonel Visscher could not have been 
prevented by any exertions within his power. They coiild not, from their posi- 
tion, be looking for surprises, except from the rear. They were the rear guard 
behind the baggage and ammunition wagons — upon the first assault he and his 
brave men were cut off from the main body, and between him and the rest of the 
little army the road, a narrow causeway, was completely blocked up and made 
impassable, in consequence of the teams and wagons being thrown into inextrica- 
ble confusion. Thus situated the rear guard was assailed with a superior force 
upon disadvantageous ground, and routed. No bravery could have prevented the 
misfortune. The trap set for General Herkimer's forces was sprung, and it struck 
with terrific force the rear, which was soon thrown into confusion and driven back 
in disorder. This, under the circumstances, it would seem was inevitable. 

I do not believe, and I cannot believe, as has been asserted, that General Herki- 
mer was apprised in advance of the ambuscade which awaited him, and that he 
expected it here uj>on this spot on his way to the fort. This is incredible, as it can- 
not be supposed that the general would have neglected to make ample provision 
forit« It would have been discreditable in him not to have provided for any 
emergency of that kind of which he had notice, even though he were forced by 



116 Centennial Celebrations. 

his turbulent officers to give the order to march on against his better judgment. 
But lie had no notice. It was a surprise, planned by St. Leger, and the execution 
of it placed mainly in the hands of Sir John Johnson, and of that cunning and 
savage Indian warrior, Joseph Brant. But the question liere occurs, how did St. 
Leger know (for he did know) of the march of the force under General Herkimer 
for the relief of Fort Stanwix ? He knew just when the relieving force left Fort 
Bayton, and what its strength was. Molly Brant, who had been the faithful 
Indian wife of Sir William Johnson, was the person who sent the intelligence to 
St. Leger's camp of General Herkimer's approach. She was the sister of Joseph 
Brant, the celebrated Indian chief who had command of the Indians. She was a 
remarkable woman, Indian though she was. It was through her sagacity and 
influence that Sir William Johnson, with whom she had lived, as his wife, for 
iipwarcl of twenty years, acquired and maintained, to the time of his death, such a 
controlling influence over the Six Nations. Upon his death she was obliged to 
leave Johnson Hall, where she had been so long mistress, and returned to live with 
her own tribe, at the Indian castle on the south side of the Mohawk, about two 
miles below the residence of General Herkimer. Her keen eye saw every thing 
that was going on, and she secretly sent an Indian in advance to apprise St. 
Leger of General Herkimer and his forces going to the relief of Fort Stanwix. By 
this timely information Sir John Johnson and the Indians had leisure to prepare 
the ambuscade which here took place. But she paid dearly, as subsequent events 
proved, for giving the information which cost so many lives of the best men in the 
upper valley of the Mohawk. 

General Herkimer could not have known — and did not know that his march 
was to be intercepted at this place, otherwise he would have prevented the sur- 
prise which led to so great a slaughter of his neighbors and cost him his own life. 
Colonel Claus, the son-in-law of Sir William Johnson, and who was with St. 
Leger's forces, wrote to the British Secretary of War under date of October 16, 
1777, as follows: 

" The 5th of August, in the afternoon, accounts were brought by Indians sent by Joseph's sister 
(Molly) from Cauajoharie, that a body of rebels were on their way and would be within ten or 
twelve miles of our camp that night. A detachment of about 400 Indians was ordered to recon- 
noiter the enemy. Sir John Johnson asked leave to join bis company of light infantiy and head 
the whole, which was granted. Colonel Butler and other Indian officers were ordered with the 
Indians." 

On November 6, 1777, Colonel Claus wrote to the Secretary as follows: 

" The Indian action near Fort Stanwix, happening near a settlement of Oneida Indians in the 
rebel's interest, who were at the same time in arms against our party, the Six Nations Indians, 
after the action, bui-nt their houses, destroyed their field-crops and killed and carried away tlieir 
cattle. This the rebel Oneidas, after our retreat, revenged upon Joseph's sister and her family 
(living in the upper Mohawk town) on Joseph's account, robbing them of cash, clothes, cattle, 
&c., and driving them from their home ; then proceeded to the Mohawk's town and dealt in the 
same manner with the poor women and children whose husbands were in the king's service. 
Joseph's sister and family fled to Onondaga, the council place of the Six Nations, laying her griev- 
ances before that body. The Six Nations, with whom she had always had a great sway during 
the late Sh- Will'am Johnson's life-time, and even now — and I understand the Six Nations to ren- 
der her satisfaction by committing hostilities upon that tribe of Oneida rebels that committed the 
outrages." 

It will be seen by the testimony here furnished just how the intelligence of Her- 
kimer's advance reached St. Leger's camp before Fort Stanwix, and that the 
result of that intelligence was the ambuscade by the Indians under Brant, and by 
the British regulars and tories under Sir John Johnson. Here the blow was 



Okiska.w. 117 

struck, wliioli, while it was at the siicritice of many lives of the \visest and best 
men in the valley of the Mohawk, staid the enemy in their progress, and finally 
resulted in their hasty flight to Canada. It was a terrible blow to the enemy, and 
while the cheek here given to them was cause of great thankfulness on the part of 
the liberty loving people of the valley, yet it brought sadness to many a heart by the 
loss of parents, sons and brothers. The noble and brave-hearted General Herki- 
mer was among those who made upon these fields at that time the sacrifice of 
their lives. His life went out nobly and bravely for his country's cause. 

General Nicholas Herkimer was the oldest son of John Jost Herkimer, who was 
among the first to settle upon the German Flats. He was a German, as were all 
the first settlers. They emigrated from a district of country in Germany, called 
the Lower Palatinate, on the Rhine, and were called Palatines. The story 
of their coming to America, and of their wanderings until they settled down 
on the patent which was granted to them in 1725, is an interesting one, 
but not important to be given here. They styled themselves high Germans, 
and were Lutherans. The patent of land granted to them extended on both 
sides of the river from the Little Falls, westward as far as Frankfort, and 
was divided into narrow lots facing the river. John Jost Herkimer drew and first 
lived upon lot No. 30, on the south side of the river. This lot is now owned by 
James H. Steele, Esq., and George H. Orendorf, and is distant about one-half a 
mile below the old stone church. Here General Herkimer was doubtless born soon 
after his father had established his home upon the lot. And upon that lot, and 
in that vicinity, he spent the days of his childhood and of his youth, following the 
vocation of a farmer's boy. The house in which he was reared survived the Revo- 
lution, and was the only house to which the torch was not applied when the de- 
struction of the settlement in that vicinity took place in the War of the Revolution. 
This house stood on the easterly side of a knoll projecting beyond the foot of the 
hill, and near a small rivulet of pure water. The old house, built in primitive 
style, remained standing until about twenty-five years ago, and there is nothing 
now to indicate where it stood, save the cavity of the cellar, and that is nearly 
obliterated. The time will soon come when there will be nothing left to indicate 
the spot where the brave hero sported when a child and grew to manhood. As 
early at least as 1730 there was a school-house in which there was a school kept 
upon or near the site of the old church, which is distant about half a mile from 
where this house stood. And it is a notable fact that upon the same spot there 
has been a school-house and a public school kept from that time down to the pres- 
ent. It is altogether probable that at the school kept at this place the young patriot 
received all the education he ever got in school — which is known to have been 
limited, and was in German. The only language spoken at the German Flats at 
that time, or heard from the pulpit, was the Gorman, and in this he was instructed, 
as I have seen his writing in the German language. At the church, near by his 
father's residence, he was instructed in the catechism, and there he was taught in 
the Holy Scriptures, with which he showed himself so familiar in his dying hour. 
His father was a prominent and influential man among the German settlers. In 
the church, which was erected upon the site of the present oldstone cluuch, he 
was a leading spirit, as appears from records still in existence. In 17.il, when it 
was proposed to erect a new edifice in the place of the old one, we find him ad- 
dressing, as sole petitioner, the Colonial Governor, the following petition for a 
license to circulate a subscription in aid of the church : 



118 Centennial Celebrations. 

To his Excellency, the Honorable George Clinton, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chie£ of the 
province of New York and Territories thereon depending in America, Vice-Adniiral of the 
same, and Admiral of the White Squadron of his Majesty's Fleet : 

The humble petition of Johan Joost Hercheimer, of Burnet's Field, in the County of Albany, 
yeoman, in behalf of himself and the rest of the inhabitants, High Germans living there, humbly 
sheweth: 

That your petitioner and sundry other High Germans, to the number of one hundred famiUes 
and upwards, at present resident at Burnet's Field, in this province, propose, with your Excel- 
lency's permission, to erect a Stone Church on the South side of the River, upon a convenient 
spot of ground already purchased by the Inhabitants, for the Worship of Almighty God, accord- 
ing to the discipline of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. But finding themselves unable 
alone to finish and complete the same, your petitioner, therefore, in behalf of the said Inhabit- 
ants, humbly prays your Excellency will be favourably pleased to grant a Brief or Lycense to 
crave the voluntary assistance and contribution of all well disposed persons within this province, 
foi' completing the said sti-ucture. altogether intended for Divine Worship, 
And your petitioner, as iu duty bound, shall ever pray, &c. 

JOHAN JOOST HEECHEIMEK, 
Fort George, 

in 

New York . 

October 6, 1751. 

Be it so. 

G. Clinton. 

Aud at a later day, tlie building of the church liaving been interrupted by the 
French and Indian war, we find him chosen as one of the committee to circulate 
the subscription, but in consequence of infirmities of age he declined and deputed 
another iu his place. The original appeal is in the following language : 

To All Christian People to whom this shall come, Whereas, the inhabitants on the south side of 
the Elver of Burnet's Field, on the German Flatts, whereas, we are about to erect a Church 
wherein the High Dutch Language in the Protestant way should be preached. Before the late 
war, and when the war begun, we was obliged to leave off building, and in the war everj'thing 
was discharged, as we were desirous to have a place of worship, we have begun to buUd a Church, 
but we found ourselfs not able to finish the same, occasioned by the troubles we had in the war, 
that is to say, all our Houses and Barns, with all we had in them, were burnt, and our Horses and 
Catties were killed and taken away, and a great many of our People taken Prisoners by the 
Enemy, which has unabled us to finish the Church. For them Reasons we have desired two of our 
members, that is to say, Johan Jost Herkemer and Hendrick Bell to try to collect some money of 
all good people to enable us to have our Church finished , and we hope all good people will take 
our cause in consideration, as we have no place of Worship now but a small Log House. 
We are, in behalf of the Congregation and ourselfs. Gentlemen, 

Your Most Humble Servants, 

AUGUSTENIS HESS, 
RODOLF SCHOMAKEE, 
PETER VOLS. 

N. B. —- 1, being old and unable, T therefore send Peter Vols to do the business of collecting for 
me. 

JOHANN JOST HERCHHEIMER, Just. 

John Jost Herkimer, the father of oui hero, was then old. He iKid become 
wealtliy, and was possessed of various large tracts of land, and had numerous 
chattels, including negro slaves. He had a large family of children, five sous and 
eiglit daughters. At an early day, and before tlie French and Indian war, and 
while his children were yet young, he built a stone mansion about three-fourths 
of a mile west of his first location. This was built a little distance above the old 
stone church, and it was afterward, and before the year 175G, included Mdthin 
the fort called "Fort Herkimer." It was finely and eligibly located upon the 
bank of the river, overlooking it and the beautiful valley for some distance both 
above and below. At that time, and until long after the revolution, the river was 



Okiskany. 119 

the great thoroughfare for trade and commerce, aud often presented a gaj' and 
lively appearance, with its batteaux floating upon its surface, laden with merchan- 
dise. To the west of tlie mansion stood "Fort Dajton," about a mile and a half 
distant, on tlie opposite side of the river. Between these forts, and diagonally 
across tlie flats, ran a road then and still called the "King's road," and almost in 
a straight linci This road w;xs the only direct line of communication between 
the forts, and it was then and for a long time afterward used as a public higliway. 

A plan of the fort surrounding the Herkimer Mansion, as made in 175G, may be 
seen in 3d. vol. of Doc. Hist, of New York, at page 732, and in Benton's History, 
at page 53. The house referred to in this plan was the Plerkimer JIausion. A 
description of the house and fort may be found in 1st vol. Doc. Hist, of Xew 
York, at page 537. Here it is altogether probable the General lived until his 
father conveyed to him the five hundred acres whereon he built his tine residence 
on the south bank of the river, below the Little Falls. This conveyance was made in 
1760. The Herkimer JIansion was originally buUt for a store, and was used as a 
depot for supplies to Oswego. We may infer from this fact that the General was 
engaged in traffic at Fort Herkimer, prior to the French war, with his father, and 
that the wealth and early prosperity of the family may be thus accounted for. 
And to this, also, may be attributed the fact that he became so generally and 
favorably known throughout the colony. 

This fort was garrisoned, and served as a protection to the inhabitants on the 
south side of the river, at the time of the French and Indian invasion, and also 
during tlie "War of the Revolution. It is supposed that the General was in com- 
mand of tlie fort in 1758, as senior officer, under his commission as lieutenant in 
Captain Wormwood's company. 

The house continued to be occupied by the Herkimer family until some time 
after tlie Revolution, when it, and so far as I can ascertain, all the Herkimer prop- 
erty at the German Flats fell into other hands. The house began soon to show 
signs of neglect and decay; and, as I remember it, it was an old, neglected and 
dilapidated stone house, which looked as if it had gone through several wars. It 
was taken down to make way for the enlarged Eric canal about 1841, and not a 
vestige of it is left to indicate its sight or its former splendor. 

John Jost Herkimer, as I have said, was a prominent and prosperous man. He 
liad great influence over the German population in the upper valley of the Jlohawk, 
and his sons, and particularly the General, shared his influence over his German 
neighbors. And I hazard nothing in saying that tliere was not a Palatine de- 
scendant in the valley who possessed the confidence and respect of the German 
inhabitants equal to that possessed by General Herkimer. It is quite certain, also, 
that ne.xt to the family of Sir William .lohnson, the Herkimer family was the 
most prosperous and influential in the valley. The eight daughters of the old 
patriot were all in.arried, and their husbands were all leading and influential men. 
Among them I may mention Rev. Abraham Eosecrants, Hendrick Frey, Colonel 
Peter Bellinger and George Henry Bell, names for a long time potent in the 
valley. The father of this large family, and of our brave hero, died at his resi- 
dence August, \~~~>, and was doubtless buried in the churchyard near by. He 
made his will April 5, 1771, which I find to have been witnessed by my grand- 
father, Doctor William Petry, who was his family physician. His will shows that 
he wiis possessed of a large estate, and the first bequest in it is to the GencrjJ, in 
the following language: "I give unto my eldest son, Nicholas Herkimer, the 
sum of ten shillings in right of primogeniture." 



120 Centennial Celebrations. 

In the next clause of his Avill he makes ample provision for his wife, and he 
declares it is his pleasure that his beloved wife, Catharine, shall remain sole and 
absolute mistress of whatever estate he may die possessed of, real autl personal, 
during her natural life. He then makes a liberal provision for his son John, who 
is supposed to have been feeble in body and mind, giving him the farm upon 
which was the family residence, and one hundred acres of land adjoining in addi- 
tion there'to — two of his best negroes and a good outfit of stock and utensils for 
tlie fann — to take possession on the death of his wife. And he provided that in 
case this son should die unmarried or without issue, the estate given him should 
go to his next heir by the name of Herkimer ; and he provided that John also 
should not sell any part of the estate given him without the consent of his execu- 
tors. The only other provision of the will which I deem it important to notice is 
contained in the following clause: "I give and devise unto my loving son, 
George, and his heirs forever, that lot whereon he now lives, commonly known 
and distinguished by the name Lot No. 36." And here I will recall the fact that 
Lot No. 36 is the same upon which the old patriarch first settled, and where he 
resided until he built tlie stone house, and where, in all probability, all his chil- 
dren were born. He, doubtless, left this son to enjoy his old farm when he removed 
to his stone mansion in the fort. This son was a true patriot, and ne.xt to his 
brother, the General, was the most conspicuous of the family in the revolutionary 
contest. He was a leading member of the Tryon County Committee of Safety, 
and was present with his heroic brother in the battle at this place. He died in 
1786, leaving seven children, among whom was the Hon. John Herkimer, who 
became an active politician and was a member of Congress, elected in 1822. The 
second son of John Jost Herkimer was Henry, or Heudrick, as he was called. 
He resided with his father until a few years before the Revolution, when he 
removed with his family to lands given him by his father at the foot of Schuyler 
Lake, in Croghan's patent. He came back at the outbreak of the war, and at 
first went to Stone Arabia and remained with his brother-in-law. Rev. Abraham 
Rosecrants, a short time and then came to the Herkimer Mansion, where he died 
before the close of the Revolution. One of his sons, the eldest, it is said, went 
over to the enemy. He too was possessed of a large estate. He was a joint pro- 
prietor with his father, of the Fall Hill patent of 2,324 acres, granted in 1752. I 
have seen a copy of this son's will, made August 17, 1778, and I deem it import- 
ant, for my present pm'pose, to call attention to the following extract only : 

'• I give and bequeath uuto my eldest son, Hon Yost Herkimer, the sum of twenty shilUngs. New 
York currenej', in right of primogeniture, and in ease it should so happen that he becomes the 
heir to the estate of my father, Han Jost Herkimer, which is now in the possession of my brother, 
John Herkimer, in that case only he is to have one hundred acres of bush land left me by my 
father's will along with the said estate, but of his not becoming heir to the said estate then he is 
to have an equal thii'd part of one thousand acres of land at the Lake Cananderago ; part of a 
patent granted to George Crogiian along with his two brothers, George and Abraham, to liim and 
his heirs forever." 

It will be seen by this extract of the will of Henry, that he supposed that a con- 
tingency might happen, whereby his eldest son should become the next heir by 
the name Herkimer, and take the estate under his father's will, which was given 
to his brother John. Descendants of Henry still reside on the ancestral lands at 
the foot of Schuyler Lake, and one of them, the venerable Timothy Herkimer, 
is here to-day to help celebrate the event which has made the name of Herkimer 
renowned in the annals of our local history. John, the brother of the General, 



Okiskany. 121 

who enjoyed the Herkimer Mimsion and lands eonnected with it, under the will 
of his father, died in 1817 without issue; and then the question arose who was 
entitled to the property under the will as the next heir of tfie testator hy the name of 
Herkimer. This question went to the courts, and was determined in the case of 
Jackson v. Dellititjer, reported in 18 Jolinsoirs Report, at page 369. It was decided 
that the property, on the death of John, descended to his heirs-at-law according 
to the statute regulating descents. Upon this decision being rendered, all con- 
troversy as to the title was ended, and the property passed out of the name of 
Herkimer. 

The remaining brother of the General, .John Jost Herkimer, gave up the con- 
test, went to Canada and took up arms against the colonics. lie was attainted 
under the act of October 22, 1779, together with Sir .John .Johnson, and other lead- 
ing tories of Tryon county, and lost his estate. 

As to the eight daughters of the old patriarch it is sufficient to say that they 
were all respectably married, though the husbands of several of them became 
ardent tories in the Revolution, and by their influence and e.\ample did much to 
bring distress upon the patriotic inhabitants of the valley. I will not name them 
here. I will say, however, that among the descendants of the tory branches of 
the family are very many respected and highly honored citizens in our State. 

But as to General Herkimer he had no descendants. He never had any children 
to inherit his virtues, or his good name and fame. Here upon these grounds he 
exhibited his true character and such virtues, that if he had left descendants 
worthy of his name, they would be proud to be here to-day, and witness the honor 
paid to his memory, and to the memory and achievements of the brave men who 
fought and died by his side. 

The General was a kind-hearted and benevolent man and a good Christian 
neighbor. He was just such a character as would make him beloved by those who 
knew him. He w;xs without guile or deceit, generous, brave and honest. Among 
his neighbors and where he was familiarly known he was called " Hannicol "' 
Herkimer. He is called by that name in several places in the "will of Sir William 
Johnson. The name " Hannicol," as is well knowm, is a nick-name for Nicholas 
among the Germans in the Mohawk Valley, and was at one time quite common. 
The General was popular among the German people. The mothers delighted in 
naming their sons after him, and he stood godfather at many a baptism of chil- 
dren, and in his will he does not overlook the little ones to whom he stood in that 
responsible and Christian relation. 

It must be admitted that he was neither a great nor a skillful General. He had 
no education or experience for that accomplishment. He had, however, courage 
and calmness in the midst of the greatest danger. Such was his nature, that 
amidst the deafening yells of the savages, and whOe his friends and neighbors 
were falling around him like autumn leaves, he could remain cool and self-pos- 
sessed. He w.as well known throughout the valley and was highly esteemed for 
the purity and un.selfishncss of his character. And he was prosperous and rich. 
His landed estate was large. He had a tenantry and slaves and money. His resi- 
dence was the most costly and imposing in the upper Mohawk Valley, and is still 
standing. I should, perhaps, have stated before, that after the battle was ended, 
here on that ever memorable day one hundred years ago. Dr. Petry, one of the 
few survivors of the Committee of Safety, who were in that battle, although 
severely wounded himself, dressed the General's shattered leg on the field and saw 
IG 



122 Centennial Celebrations. 

him placed on a litter and leave on his way home. This was the last time Dr. 
Petry saw him. He did not consider his wound necessarily dangerous, and had 
no thought of his dying. He often declared to his family and friends that the 
General's life was sacrificed by an unnecessary and unskillful amputation. Doctor 
Petry was one of the Committee of Safety, who at the consultation, on the fifth of 
August, strongly urged the onward movement ; and I have no doubt, from what I 
have heard said of him, he did it in strong language. But I have no reason to 
doubt that the relations between him and the General remained friendly, and he 
doubtless would have gone home with the wounded General, had he not been 
himself disabled by a painful wound. The General was attended by a young 
surgeon who followed General Arnold up the valley, and who amputated his leg 
so unskillfuUy that he bled to death. I cannot better prove this, than by the fol- 
lowing account, given by the surgeon who performed the operation: 

Dear Doctor — Yesterday morning I amputated General Harcomer's leg, there not being left the 
prospect of recovery without it. But alas, the patriotic hero died in tlie evening — the cause of 
his death God only knows. About three hours before his departure he complained of pain. I 
gave him thirty drops of laudanum liquid and went to dress Mr. Pettery. I left him in as good a 
way as I could wish with Dr. Hastings to take care of him. When I returned I found him taking 
his last gasp, free from spasm and sensible. Nothing more surprised me. but we catmot always 
parry death, so there is an end of it. 

General Arnold left yesterday morning with positive orders to follow him this evening or 
to-morrow morning , I sent for Scull to take care of the General and Pettery. He is Just now 
arrived. I propose to have Pettery removed to Palatine, where Scull and two regimental mates 
will take care of him and the other wounded. This evening I will pursue General Arnold, and I 
suppose will overtake him at Fort Dayton, ***** 

The place and hour of glory draws nigh. No news from Fort Schuyler, I am, dear doctor, your 
most obedient and humble servant, ROBERT JOHNSTON. 

This letter was addressed to Dr. Jonathan Potts, director of the general hos- 
pital for the northern department.* 

In his last moments the dying General showed himself to be, as he was, a 
Christian hero. Not a murmur or a word of complaint seems 1 3 have escaped his 
lips. He turned to his Bible, a familiar book to him, and sought therein conso- 
lation to a djdng Christian. He gave up his noble life to his country when he was 
yet m full vigor of health and strength. He was about fifty-five years of age, not 
older, at the time of his death. 

His will, which is dated February 7, 1777, is on file in the ofiice of the clerk of 
the Court of Appeals. The provisions in it are numerous, and some of them quite 
interesting as well as characteristic of the brave and kind-hearted man. I will 
here give only that portion of it relating to his widow, which is in the following 
language : 

Item. I give unto my said beloved wife for her sole property and disposal one of the young 
negro wenches, named Mya, about one and a half years old. And also I bequeath unto her, her 
heirs and assigns forever, a certain tract of land in George Clock's patent, containing one hundred 
acres of woodland, formerly conveyed by release by Severinus Tygert of Stonearaby dec'd unto 
my first married wife dec'd her heirs and assigns, 

(Item. I give unto my said beloved wife Maria, upon this express condition and proviso, that 
sheshalland will during her widowhood of me behave and conduct herself in chastity and other 
Christian manners, becoming to a decent and religious widow, further, the following devices in the 
following manner: That is to s.ay, during the natural life of my said beloved wife, she shall have, 
posses, and enjoy, upon the performance of the heretofore reserved condition and proviso, the 
room in the north east corner of my present dwelling house, with all the furniture therein being 
at my disease, and one quarter of one acre in one of the gardens near the house to her choice, and 
also four apple trees to her choice, free pass and repassing unmolested to the said room, garden 

* See New England Historical and General Register (1864), vol. 18, p. 31. 



OUISKANY. 123 

and apple trees, and free wood and water upon my said tenements to lier use, one of the negro 
wenches to her choice, besides the above mentioned already devised unto her, her heire and assigns. 
Also to her clioice, one horse and ono mare, two cows, six sheep, six hugs, tliree silver spoons, and 
four silver tea spoons, one half dozen China teacups and saucers, two pots, one copper kettle, two 
dishes, six pewter plates, four pewter spoons, two bowles, two pewter teapots, one trammel, one 
pair of andirons, one doien knives and forks, one half dozen chairs, one table. The moiety of my 
linen and homespun store, and the other half to be divided by her among my black servants for 
their clothing, and all the women clothes left at my decease having been her wearing as well as ot 
my first wife deceased ; all these to be and to hold for the use of her, her heirs and assigns upon 
the performance of the above express proviso and condition.) 

But upon the true proof of her conduct against it, all these devises included in the circumflex, 
shall be void, and then appertain unto the hereafter named possessor of my present dwelling tene- 
ment, and to his heirs and assigns. 

But during the widowhood of her, my said wife, on the same condition and proviso as aforesaid, 
she shall have, occupy and enjoy the half of my present dwelling house, and of all the issues and 
profits of the tenement of five hundred acres of land, whereon I now live, and also of all the issues 
of my wenclies, hoi-ses and other cattle, but she shall equally pay the half of all the expenses in 
behalf of the said issues, which must be extra paid besides the work of my servants and cattle ; 
but upon non performance of the said proviso, this device shall also be void. Further, it is my 
express will and order, that if bj' the providence of God my present beloved wife, and future widow 
after my decease, should lawfully marry one of ni)' brother's sons, that then they shall have and 
enjoy the interests and rents of all my lands lying in the patent granted to Edward Holland, now 
leased to the respective tenants thereof and also one lot of woodland in the same patent not 
leased, which is adjacent to the Fallbergh patent, to them, their heirs and assigns forever. But it 
in case she my said wife should after my decease marry with one of my sisters' sons, then the said 
interests and rents of the said leased lands together with the said one hundred acres of woodland 
shall be and appertain to them, their heirs and assigns, during both their lives. 

Without attempting any explanation of the reasons of tlie General for contem- 
plating, as he seems to have done, the possibility of the marriage of his widow to 
one of his nephews, I will say that this event never took place. She did not re- 
main at the homestead of the General long after hisde.ath; and it is altogether 
probable she gave uji most, if not all, of the provisions made for her in tlie will. 
She soon married and went to Canada, and but little is known of her subsequent 
history. This is known, however, that the man she married was poor, and far 
beneath her in social jjosition. She gave up the comforts of a good home for a 
hard life, and the remainder of her days, which were probably few, it is said, were 
spent in poverty and want. 

During the speech of Mr. Eael an oil portrait of General Herkimer 
was exhibited to the audience. Also the sword of Major House, which 
was used upon this battle-field. At the close of Mr. Eakl's address 
three more cheers were given in compliment to the speaker. 

M. M. Jones, Esq., of Utica, having been requested to read the com- 
mission of General Herkimer, prefaced it with the following sketch : 



ADDRESS OF M. M. JONES, ESQ. 

You will notice that the commission I am about to read to you is in the name 
of, and issued by the " Convention of the Representatives of the State of New 
York," a body of patriots, anomalous in its election and organization, and seldom 
heard of except by those who have searched its records, or read slight memorials 
of it upon the pages of our State history. At the commencement of the Revolu- 



124 Centennial Celebrations. 

tion, all branches nf government in the Colony of New York, the Govei'nor, 
Council and General Assembly were loyal to George III and his crown. In the 
assembly were a few patriotic men like George Clinton, Philip Schuyler, Simon 
Boerum, Robert R. Livingston, Jr., Abraham Ten Broeck, Nathaniel Woodhull, 
but they were too few to accomplish more than keeping the people advised of the 
designs of the British Government. 

The incipient machinery for beginning a government in this State was, from the 
necessity of the case, an emanation from the people. It had no law for its basis, 
except that natural law which gives man the right of self-government. 

The first and subsequent Colonial Congresses of New York were elected as we 
at this day elect our political conventions. They made laws and passed resolu- 
tions, and enforced them. They assumed all the powers and duties of a State 
government. The men who composed them were patriots, and many of them 
were statesmen. Several of them became members of the Continental Congress 
and others became officers and soldiers in the field. 

The second Continental Congress was to meet at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. 
As the General Assembly of New York had refused to appoint delegates to that 
body, the Committee of the Sons of Liberty for the city and county of New 
York, in March, 1775, issued a call to the several counties of the colony, asking 
tliem to send delegates to meet in New York City, April 20, to elect such dele- 
gates. This body, designated a Provincial Convention, was composed of fifty of 
the leading men of New York, among wliom were Governors George Clinton and 
John Jay, Messrs. Floyd, Lewis, Livingston and Morris, signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, Generals Schuyler and McDougal. It met April 20, 1775, 
and its powers being exhausted by the election of delegates to Congress, dissolved 
itself, April 22. The next day, Sunday, the news of the battle of Lexington 
arrived at New York. Electrified by the intelligence the people began the work 
of revolution with a high hand. The general committee, increased in numbers 
and powers, called upon the counties to send delegates to a " Provincial Con- 
gress," to be held in New York on the 22d of Jlay, 1775. 

This first Provincial Congress elected Peter Van Brugh Livingston its first 
president, and James McKesson, secretary. It held three sessions, May 22, Jxily 
36, October 4, and dissolved November 4, 1775. 

The second Provincial Congress was elected May 7, 1775, and held three ses- 
sions, commencing December 6, 1775, Februar}' 12 and May 8, 177G. 

The Ihiixl Provincial Congress was elected in April, 1776, convened in New 
York May 18, and remained in session luitil June 30, when it dissolved, as the 
British troops were about taking possession of the city. 

The fourth Provincial Congress assembled at AVlrite Plains, July 9, 1770. The 
Declaration of Independence was read and unanimously adopted. As the colonies 
had now become States, the style of the Provincial Congress of the Colony of 
New York, was changed to " the Convention of the Representatives of the State 
of New York." This was the body, under its new name, and with new powers 
and aspirations, which granted the commission of brigadier-general to the patriot 
hero of Oriskany. 

This convention removed to Harlem, July 20, to FishkUl, August 29, where it 
held various short sessions until February 11, 1777, when it adjourned to Kings- 
ton. It met at the latter place, March 0, and having formed a State Constitution, 
the convention was finally dissolved May 13, 1777. The convention had estab- 
lished a temporary government by electing a Council of Safety, with power to act 



Oeiskany. 125 

in nil rnscs under the new constitution until the new government should be 
elected. 

During the recesses of the Colonial Congress, its powers, or those assumed by 
it, were exercised by Committees of Safety. These bodies took upon themselves 
all the powers and duties inherent in the people. They raised troops and issued 
commissions to their officers, they collected and disbursed the taxes, they defined 
and punished offenses against the government, including treason ; they, by resolu- 
tions, defined offenses against society and their punishment. The members of 
these Colonial Congresses were in the main great and good men, and they consci- 
entiously executed the trusts conferred upon them by the people. 

In the summer of 1TT~, the people elected their Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, 
Senate. and Assembly, and then the government of the Empire State was set in 
motion. That good man, George Clinton, who was then in the field at the head 
of the New York militia, found himself elected both Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor. After diie consideration he chose the former, and was in office from 
1777 to 1795, and 1801 to 1804, and died while vice-president of the United 
States. 

Abraham Yates, Jr., who signed General Herkimer's commission, was a delegate 
from Albany in the four Colonial Congresses. At several times in 1775 and 1776 
he was president, pro tern., and was president of the convention from August 28, 
to September 2G, 1776. 

John McKesson was secretary until after the adoption of the Constitution of 
1777. Jlore than forty years afterward the son of Mr. j\IcKesson was enabled, 
from his father's memoranda and minutes, to furnish to our State its only authen- 
ticated official copy of our Constitution of 1777, and two pages of that copy were 
supplied from a printed edition. 

GENERAL HERKBLER'S COMMISSON. 
In Cona'ention of the Representatives of the State op New York. 

To Nicholas Herkermkr, Esquire, Greeting; 

■We resposing Especial trust and Confidence in yonr Patriotism, Valor, Conduct and Fidelity 
Do by tlicse presents Constitute and appoint }-ou tlie said Nicholas Herkermer Brigadier General 
o£ the Brigade of Militia of the County of Trj-on Embodied for the defence of American Liberty 
and for reiielling everj- ITostile Invasion thereof, j'ou are therefore carefully and diligently to dis- 
charge tlie duty of Brigadier General by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto 
belonging, and we do strictly charge and Require all officers and Privates under your Command 
to be Obedient to your orders as Brigadier General. 

And you are to observe and follow such orders and directions from time to time as you shall 
receive from the present or any future Congress of the United States of America, or from this or 
any future Convention of the Eepresentatives, or future Executive .\uthority of this State, or 
from the Commander-in-Chief for the time being of tho Army of the United States, or any 
other your superior officer, according to the linles and Discipline of War, in pursuance of 
the Trust Reposed in you, Prnrided such orders and directions of the said Commander-in-Chief, 
or of such superior officer be grounded on the Authority of the present or any future Congress 
of the United American States, or the present or any future Convention of the Representatives, or 
other executive Authority of this State, or their R<_'spective Committees of Safety. This Commis- 
sion to Continue of force until Revoked by this or a future Convention of thisSTATE. 

Given at Fish Kills tho Fifth day of September iu the year of our Lord One thousand Seven hun- 
dred and Seventy-six. 

By Order, 

ABM. YATES, JrxR., President, 
Attest. .ToHN McKesson, Secretary. 



126 Centennial Celebrations. 

The exercises of this stand were closed by the reading of the poem, 
written for the occasion by General DePeyster of New York : 



POEM BY GENERAL J. WATTS DE PEYSTEE. 

Old Seventeen hundred and Seventy-seven, 

Of Liberty's throes, was the crown and the leaven. 

Just a century since, August Sixth, was the day 

When Great Britain's control was first stricken away. 

Let us sing then the field where the Yeomen of York 

Met the Lion and Wolf on their slaughterous stalk ; 

When Oriskany's ripples were crimson'd with blood ; 

And when strife fratricidal polluted its flood. 

Oh, glorious collision, forever renowned ! 

While America lives should its praises resound. 

And stout Harkeimer's name be the theme of the song, 

Who with Mohawk's brave sons broke the strength of the strong. 

To relief of Fort Stanwix New Yorkers drew nigh. 

To succor stout Gansevoort, conquer or die ; 

And if unwise the counsels that brought on the fight, 

In the battle was shown that their hearts were all right. 

If their Chief seemed so prudent that " subs " looked askance, 

Stni one shout proved their feeling, their courage — " Advance ! " 

Most unfortunate counsel ! The ambush was set, 
Leaving one passage in, but none out of the net, — 
Of outlets, not one, unless 'twas made by the sword 
Through encompassing ranks of the pitiless horde. 
Sure never was column so terribly caught. 
Nor ever has column more fearlessly fought : — 
Thus Harkeimer's Mohawkers made victory theirs, 
For St. Leger was foiled in spite of his snares. 

The loud braggarts who had taunted Harkeimer so free. 
Ere the fight had begun, were from fight first to flee ; 
WhUe the stalwart old Chief, who a father had proved. 
And his life offered up for the cause that he loved, 
'Mid the war-whirl of Death still directed each move, 
'Mid the rain from the clouds and from more fatal groove 
Of the deadlier rifle, — and object assured, 
To him Palm, both as victor and martyr, inured. 

Search the annals of War and examine with care 
If a parallel fight can discovered be, there. 
When eight hundred green soldiers beset in a wood 
Their assailants, as numerous, boldly -n-ithstood ; 
And while Death sleeted in from environing screens 



] 28 Centennial Celebrations. 



APPEI^DIX 



HON. ELLIS n. ROBERTS' HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 



1. The Name Oriskant. (Page 78.) 

The orthography of Oriskauy has been settled by custom contrary to Indian 
euphony. St. Leger writes it Oriska ; Colonel Willett changes the initial to Eriska ; 
Captain Deygart (Clinton manuscripts) writes Orisco. In Loudon documents (Colo- 
nial History, vol. 8, p. 690), we find Oriske. 

In a " Chorographical map of the Province of New York," London. 1779, is Ochris- 
cany Patent granted to T. Wenham & Co. In a map of 1790, this becomes 
Ochriskeney) Documentary History of New York, vol. 1.) 

In his League of the Iroquois. L. H. Morgan gives the Indian derivation, showing 
that the name comes from the Mohawk dialect. 

In the several dialects the form is as follows: 

Seneca dialect, Ohis-heh; Cayuga, 0-his-ha; Onondaga, 0-liis-ka ; Tuscarora^ 
Ose-hase-keh ; Oneida, Ole-hisk ; Mohawk Ole-his-ka ; the significance in each case 
being the Place of Nettles. 

The last syllable of Oriskany is a termination signifying a stream, the same as 
ana or anna. 

" 2. Building of Fort Stanwix. (Page 80.) 

The building of Fort Stauwi^c, in 1758, is recorded in Documentary History of New 
York, vol. 4, p. 323, and a topographical map is given of tlie country between the 
Mohawk and Wood Creek, from an actual survey in November, 1738. General 
Abercrombie's order to General Stauwix to erect the fort is there preserved. Fort 
Williams had at an earlier day stood iu the neighborhood. Fort Stanwix was not 
finished in 1760, when M. Pouchot passed it. (Hough's Translation of his Memoir, 

p. 138.) 

Out of compliment to General Philip Schuyler the attempt was made to change 
the name of tliis Fort, but old Peter Schuyler had given the title to the old Fort at 
Utica, and Stanwix has clung to the historic work at Rome. 

3. Peace Councils at Fort Stanwix. (Page 80.) 

In 17G8 it had been the scene of an important council, when thirty-two hundred 
Indians of the Six Nations assembled to treat %vith representatives of Virginia, 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Sir William JoLinson then closed the "Treaty of 
Fort Stanwix." The original record will be found in the Documents relating to the 
Colonial Hi.itory of New York, vol, 8, p. Ill, and following. 

In 178-t a orand council was lield here between the chiefs of the Six Nations and 
commissioners on the part of the United States, and a treaty of peace was negotiated. 



Appendix to Hon. Ellis II. Hobekts' Address. 129 



4. St. Legek's Troops Designated in London. (Page 83.) 

Thi.s extract from an official letter from Lord George Geriuaiue to General Carle- 
tou, dated Whitehall, tweuty-sixth March, 1777, is talceu from the "State of the 
Expedition from Canada," published in Loudon, 1780. by General Burgoyne in his 
own defense: " With a view of quelling the rebellion as quickly a.s possible, it is 
become highly necessary that the most speedy junction of the two armies should be 
effected, and therefore, as the security and good government of Canada absolutely 
require your presence there, it ia the King's determination to leave about 3,000 men 
under your command, and to employ the remainder of your army upon two expedi- 
tions, the one under the command of Lieuteuant-General Burgoyne, who is to force 
his way to Albany, and the other under command of Lieuteuaut-Colouel St. Leger, 
who is to make a diversion on the Mohawk river. 

"As this plan cannot be advantageously executed without the assistance of Cana- 
dians and Indians, His Majesty strongly recommends it to your care to furnish both 
expeditions with good and sufficient bodies of those men ; aud I am happy in know- 
ing that your influence among them is so great that there can be no room to appre- 
hend that you will find it difficult to fulfill His Majesty's expectations. * * * * 
It is the King's further pleasure that )-ou put under command of Colonel St. Leger: 

Detachment from the 8th Regiment 100 

Detachment from the 34tli Regiment 100 

Sir John Johnson's regiment of New York 133 

Ilanau Chasseurs 342 

675 

together with a sufficient number of Indians and Canadians, and after having 
furnished him with proper artillery, stores, provision.^ and every other necessary 
article for his expedition, and secured to him every assistance in your power to 
afTord and procure, you are to give hiui orders to proceed forthwith to and down to 
the .Mohawk river to Albany and put himself under the command of Sir William 
Howe. 

" I shall write to Sir William Howe from hence by the first packet ; but you will 
nevertheless endeavor to give him the earliest intelligence of this measure, and also 
direct Lieutenant-Oeneral Burgoyne and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Leger to neglect no 
opportunity of doing the same, that they may receive instructions from Sir William 
Howe. You will at the same time inform them that until they shall have received 
orders from Sir William Howe, it is His Majesty's pleasure that they act as exigen- 
cies may require, and in such manner as they shall judge most proper for making an 
impression on the rebels and bringing them to obedience ; but that in so doing they 
must never lose view of their intended junctions with Sir William Howe as their 
principal objects. 

" In case LieutenantGeneral Burgoyne or Lieutenant-Colonel St. Legei should 
happen to die or bo rendered, through illness, incapable of executing these great 
trusts, you are to nominate to their respective commands such officer or officers as 
you shall think best qualified to supply tlio place of those whom His Majesty has, in 
his wisdom, at present appointed to conduct these expeditious." 

5. KlttKL.\ND AND THE INDIANS. (Page 82.) 

Reverend Samuel Kirkland wrote to the committee at Albany, June 9, 177.'5 ; 
" Colonel Johnson has orders from government (of course the British government) 
17 



130 Centennial Celebrations. 

to remove the dissenting minister from tlie SiK Nations, till the difficulties between 
Great Britain and th colouies are settled. * * All he has against me I sup- 
pose to be this: A suspicion that I have interpreted to the Indians the doings of the 
Continental Congress, which has undeceived and too much opened the eyes of the 
Indians for Colonel Johnson's purposes. I confess to you, gentlemen, that I have 
been guilty of this, if it be any transgression. * * j apprehend my inter- 
preting the doings of the Congress to their sachems has done more real service to 
the cause of the country, or the cause of trutli and justice, than £500 in presents 
would have effected." Jones' Aunals of Oneida County, p. 853. 

6. General ScnuYiER's Fe.\r. (Page 82.) 

In a letter to the Committee of Safety, dated July 34, 1777, General Schuyler 
says : 

"If Burgoyne can penetrate to Albany, the force which is certainly coming by way 
of Oswego, will find no dilficulty in reaching the Mohawk river, and being arrived 
there, will be joined by tories not only, but by every person that finds himself capa- 
ble of removing, and wishes to make his peace with the enemy, and by the whole 
body of the Six Nations. " 

7. Sir John Jotinson the Britisii Leader at Oriskany. (Page 83.) 

William L. Stone, to whom so much is due for a fair statement of the Battle of 
Oriskany, insists that Sir John Johnson was not in the battle at all, naming Watts, But- 
ler and Brant, in. this order as leaders. And W. W. Campbell, in his Aunals of Tryon 
county, places the " Indians and tories under Brant and Butler." Irving in his Life 
of Washington follows these authorities. Stone justifies his denial of Johnson's 
presence in the battle by Colonel Willett's assertion in his narrative, that Singleton, 
one of the prisoners taken in the sortie, told him that " Sir John Johnson was with 
him (Singleton) when the camp was attacked." Tliese words of Willett are in the 
paraphrase by Willett's son (Narrative, page .53), transformed into a statement that 
Johnson was "in his tent with his coat off, and had not time to put it on before his 
camp was forced." 

In view of the importance of the operations then iu progress this statement is in- 
trinsically improbable. It is contradicted by the positive language of St. Leger, who, 
in Ills Narrative (Burgoyne's Defense) clearly says : "Sir John Johnson put liimflelf 
at the head of the party," which went to Oriskany, "and began his march that eve- 
ning at five o'clock, and met the rebel corps at the same hour next morning." St. 
Leger attempted a movement against the sortie, but he used Lieutenants only, as he 
could not have done if Johnson had been in camp. See the tenth section of this 
Appendix. 

In an official letter from Colonel Daniel Clans (St. Leger's superintendent of Indi- 
ans), he distinctly avers: "Sir John Johnson asked leave to join his company of 
light infantry and head the whole, which was granted; Colonel Butler and other 
Indian officers were ordered with the Indians." Colonial History, vol. 8, p. 721 . 

President Dwight (Travels, vol. 3, p. 194), who made the battle a study in 1799, at 
Whitestown and Rome, says: " Sir John had scarcely left the ground to attack 
General Herkimer." And again after the battle : " At the return of Sir John." (p. 
195.) Tliis was the clear understanding of the generation to whom about the battle- 
field and the Fort, the fight was as the alphabet ; and it has the weight of authority 
in its favor. 

Indeed, taking the language of St. Leger and Clans together, it is absolutely 
incontrovertible. 



Appendix tu Hon. Ellis H. Roberts' Address. 131 

S. fiF.NEUAL Putnam Aids in the Relief. (Page 89.) 
In tlie Clinton Papers at Albauy is the original of tlie following letter : 

, Peck's Kill, August U, 1777. 

"Dear Sir: — Received yours of the fourteenth in.st. In consequence of it and 
former orders received from Heneral Washington, have ordered Colonel Cortlandt's 
and Colonel Livingston's regiments to march immediately to the northward to the 
relief of Fort Schuyler, or as you shall see fit to direct them. 

" I wish them a speedy and safe arrival and you most successful enterprise against 
those worse than infernals. 

" With great respect, I am your obedient humhle servant, 

■■ ISRAEL PUTNAM." 

" To his Excellency, Governor Clinton." 

9. QovEKNOB Clinton TO THE Committee OP Safety. (Page 92.) 

The following is the text of a letter from Covernor George Clinton, copied from 
the original in the State Library at Albanj': 

Albany, August 33, 1777. 

"General Harchheimer is dead of his wounds. His leg was taken off and he sur- 
vived it but a few hours. General Arnold with his party is at Fort Dayton. About 
100 of the militia of Tryon county only are with him. I have issued my positive 
orders to the otticers commanding the respective regiments there to detach one-half 
to join General Arnold's army. Colonels Cortland's and Livingston's regiments 
marched this evening for his further reinforcement. 

" Tlie enemy in that quarter having acquired a considerable accession of numbers 
from Indians and tories, the above measures were rendered necessary. The garrison 
however, by very late accounts, are high in spirits and well provided, and I have no 
doubt we shall in a few days receive the most agreeable intelligence from that quar- 
ter. From the Oneidas and Tuscororas, whose chieftains are now with General 
Arnold, we have the fullest assurance of assistance but have nothing to expect from 
any other tribes of the Six Nations until our successes intimidate them into friend- 
ship. Since the affair at Bennington the scalping business seems to have ceased." 

10. St. Leoeu's Own Nakk.vtive. (Page 81.) 

General Burgoyne published in Loudon, in 17S0, a defense of his campaign in 
.\nierira, under the title: " A State of the expedition from Canada, as laid before 
the House of Commons." lu the Appendix is tlie followingiuteresting decument: 

" CoT.oNEi, St. Lec.eu's Account op Occurrences at Fort Stanwix." 

"A minute detail of every operation since my leaving La Chine, with the detach- 
ment entrusted to my care, your excellency will permit me to reserve to a time of 
less hurry and mortification than the present, while I enter into the interesting 
scene before Fort Stanwix, which I invested the third of August, having previously 
pu.shed forward Lieutenant Bird of the King's regiment, with thirty of the King's 
troops and two hun<lrcd Indians, under the direction of Captains Hare and Wilson, 
and tlio Chiefs Joseph and Bull, to seize fast hold of the lower landing place, and 
therel)y cut otl' the enemy's communication with tlie lower country. This was done 
with great address by the Lieutenant, though not attended with the effect I had 
promisiMl myself, occasioned by the slackness of the Messasagoes. The brigade of 



132 Centennial Celebrations. 

provisions and ammunition boats I had intelligence of, being arrived and disem- 
barked before this party had taken post. 

" The fourth and fifth were employed in making arrangements for opening Wood 
Creek (which the enemy, with indefatigable labor of one hundred and fifty men, for 
fourteen days, had most eflJectually choked up) and the making a temporary road 
from Pine Ridges, upon Fish Creek, sixteen miles from the fort, for a present sup- 
ply of provision and the transport of our artillery ; the first was eflTected by the dili- 
gence and zeal of Captain Bouville, assisted by Captain Herkimer, of the Indian 
department, with one hundred and ten men, in nine days; while Lieutenant Lundy, 
acting as assistant quartermaster general, had rendered the road, in the worst of 
weather, sufficiently practicable to pass the whole artillery and stores, with seven 
days' provision, in two days. 

" On the fifth, in the evening, intelligence arrived by my discovering parties on the 
Mohawk river, that a reinforcement of eight hundred militia, conducted by General 
Herkimer, were on their march to relieve the garrison, and were actually at that 
instant at Oriska, an Indian settlement, twelve miles from the fort. The garrison 
being apprised of their march by four men, who were seen to enter the fort in the 
morning, through what was thought an impenetrable swamp, I did not think it pru- 
dent to wait for them, and thereby subject myself to be attacked by a sally from the 
garrison in the rear, while the reinforcement employed me in front. I therefore 
determined to attack them on the march, either openly or covertly, as circumstances 
should offer. At this time, I had not two hundred and fifty of the king's troops in 
camp; the various and extensive operations I was under an absolute necessity of 
entering into, having employed the rest ; and therefore could not send above eighty 
white men, rangers and troops included, with the whole corps of Indians. Sir John 
Johnson put himself at the head of this party, and began his march that evening at 
five o'clock, and met the rebel corps at the same hour the next morning. The 
impetuosity of the Indians is not to be described on the sight of the enemy (forget- 
ting the judicious disposition formed by Sir John, and agreed to by themselves, 
which was to suffer the attack to begin with the troops in front, while they should 
be on both flanks and rear), they rushed in hatchet in hand, and thereby gave the 
enemy's rear an opportunity to escape. In relation to the victory it was equally 
complete, as if the whole had fallen ; nay, more so, as the two hundred who escaped 
only served to spread the panic wider ; but it was not so with the Indians ; their 
loss was great. (I must be understood Indian computation, being only about thirty 
killed and the like number wounded, and in that number some of their favorite 
chiefs and confidential warriors were slain.) On the enemy's side, almost all their 
principal leaders were slain. General Herkimer has since died of his wounds. It is 
proper to mention, that the fotir men detached with intelligence of the nmrch of the 
reinforcement, set out the evening before the action, and consequently the enemy 
could have no account of the defeat, and were in possession only of the time ap- 
pointed for their arrival, at which, as I suspected, they made a sally with two hun- 
dred and fifty men toward Lieutenant Bird's post, to facilitate the entrance of the 
relieving corps, or bring on a general engagement, with every advantage they could 
wish. 

"Captain Hoyes was immediately detaohod to cut in upon their rear, while they 
engaged the lieutenant. Immediately upon the departure of Captain Iloyes, having 
learned that Lieutenant Bird, misled by the information of a cowardly Indian, that 
Sir John was pressed, had quitted his post to march to his assistance, I marched the 
detachment of the King's regiment, in support of Captain Hoyes, by a road in sight 
of the garrison, which, with executive fire from his party, immediately drove the 
enemy into the fort, without any further advantage than frightening some squaws 
and pilfering the packs of the warriors wbirh they left behind them. After this 



Appendix to IIox. Ellis II. Roberts' Address. 133 

affair was over, orders were iiiimcdiiitely given to complete a two-gun battery, and 
mortar beds, with three strong redoubts in their rear, to enable nie, in case of another 
attempt to relieve the garrison by their regimental troops, to march out a larger body 
of the King's troops. 

" Captain Lernoult was sent with one hundred and ten men to the lower landing 
place, where he established himself witli great judgment and strength, having an 
enclosed battery of a three-pounder opposed to any sally from the fort, and another 
to the side of the country, where a relief must approach ; and the body of his camp 
deeply entrenched and abbatiscd. 

" When by the uniibating labor of officers and men (the smallnessof our numbers 
never admitting of a relief, or above three hours' cessation for sleep or cooking,) the 
batteries and redoubts were finished, and new cheeks and axle-trees made for the six- 
pounders, those that were sent being rotten and unserviceable. 

" It was found that our cannon had not the least effect upon the sod-work of the 
fort, and that our royals had only the power of teazing, as a six-inch plank was a 
sufiBcient security for their powder magazine, as we learnt from the deserters. At 
this time Lieutenant Gleuie. of the artillery, whom I appointed to act as assistant 
engineer, proposed a conversion of the royals (if I may use theexpressioui into how- 
itzers. The ingenuity and feasibility of this measure striking me very strongly, the 
business was set about immediately, and soon executed, when it was found that 
nothing prevented their operating with the desired effect but the distance, their 
chambers being too small to hold a sufficiency of powder. There was nothing now 
to be done but to approach the town by sap to such a distance that the rampart 
might be brought within their practice, at the same time all materials were prepar- 
ing to run a mine under their most formidable bastion. 

"In the midst of these operations intelligence was brought in by our scouts, of a 
se«ond corps of 1,000 men being on their march. The same zeal no longer animated 
the Indians; they complained of our thinness of troops and their former losses. I 
immediately called a council of the chiefs ; encouraged them as much as I could ; 
promised to lead them on myself, and bring into the field 300 of the best troops. 
They listened to this, and promised to follow me, and agreed that I should recon- 
noitre the ground properest for the field of battle the next morning, accompanied by 
some of their chief warriors to settle the plan of operations. When upon the ground 
appointed for the field of battle, scouts came in with the account of the first number 
swelled to 2.000; immediately after a third, that General Burgoyne's army was cut 
to pieces, and that Arnold was advancing by rapid and forced marches with 3,000 
men. It was at this moment I began to suspect cowardice in some and treason in 
others; however, I returned to camp, not without hopes, with the assistance of my 
gallant coadjutor, Sir John Tohnson.and the influence of the superintending colonels, 
Clans and Butler, of inducing them to meet the enemy. A council, according to 
their custom, was called, to know their resolutions, before the breaking up of which 
I learned that 200 were already decamped. In about an hour they insisted that I 
should retreat, or they would be obliged to abandon me. I had no other party to 
take, and a hard party it was to troops who could do nothing without them, to yield 
to their resolves; and therefore proposed to retire at night, sending on before my 
sick, wounded, artillery etc., down the Wood Creek, covering them by our line of 
march. 

"Thisdid not fall in with their views, which were no le.ss than treacherously com- 
mitting ravage upon their friends, as they bad lost the opportunity of doing it upon 
their enemies. To effect this they artfully caused messengers to come in, one after 
the other, with accounts of the near approaches of the rebels ; one and the last 
affirmed that they were within two miles of Captain Lernoult'a post. Not giving 
entire credit to this, and keeping to my resolution of retiring by night, they grew 



i3J: Centennial Celebrations. 

furious and abandoned ; seized upon the olHcers' liquor and clotlis, in spite of tlie 
eflForts of their servants, and became more formidable than the enemj' we had to 
expect. I now thought it time to call in Captain Lernoult's post, retiring with the 
troops in camp to the ruined fort called William, in the front of the garrison, not 
only to wait the enemy if they thought proper to sally, but to protect tlie boats from 
the fury of the savages, having sent forward Captain Hoyes with his detachment, 
with one piece of cannon, to the place where Bull Fort stood, to receive the troops 
who waited tiie ai'rival of Captain Lernoult. Most of the boats were escorted that 
night beyond Canada Creelc, where no danger was to be apprehended from the 
enemy. The creek at this place, bending from the road, has a deep cedar swamp 
between. Every attention was now turned to tlie mouth of the creek, which the 
enemy miglit have possessed themselves of by a rapid march by the Oneyda Castle. 
At this place the whole of the little army arrived by twelve o'clock at night, and 
took post in such a manner as to have no fears of any thing that the enemy could do. 
Here we remained till three o'clock next morning, when the boats which could come 
up the creek arrived, or rather that the rascally part of all nations of the Indians 
would suffer to come up ; and proceeded across Lake Oneyda to tlie ruined Fort of 
Brereton, where I learnt that some boats were still laboring down the creek, after 
being lightened of the best part of their freight by the JNIessasagoes. Captain Ler- 
noult proposed, with a boat full of armed men, to re-pass the lalie that niglit to 
relieve them from their labor, and supply them with provisiim. This transaction 
does as much honor to the humanity as to the gallantry of this valuable officer. 

"On my arrival at the Onondago Fallal received an answer to my letter from 
Your Excellency, which showed, in the clearest light, the scenes of treachery that 
had been practiced upon me . The messenger had heard indeed on his way that 
they were collecting the same kind of rabble as before, but that there was not an 
enemy within forty miles of Fort Stanwix. 

" Soon aftei' my arrival here I was joined by Captain Lernoult, with the men and 
boats he had been in search of. I mean immediately to send off for the use of the 
upper garrison, all the overplus provisions 1 shall have, after keeping a sufficiency 
to carry my detachment down, which I mean to do witli every expedition in my 
power the moment this business is effected, for which purpose I have ordered here 
the sloop. The sloop is already gone from this with her full lading. 

" Officers from each corps are sent to Montreal to procure necessaries for the meu' 
who are in the most deplorable situation from the plunder of the savages,"that no 
time may be lost to join your army . 

" I have the lionor to be, with the greatest respect, sir. Your Excellency's most 
obedient and most faithful servant, 

'■ BAURY ST. LEGER." 

" Oswego, August 27, 1777. 

" His Excellency, General Burgoyne." 

11. BuiTisn Authority on the Importance op St. Leger's Expedition. 

(Page 91.) 

Tlie first authority on this point is General Burgoyne, who, in his paper " for con- 
ducting the war from the side of Canada," urges tlie expedition by " the Lake 
Ontario and Oswego to the Mohawk River, which," he says, " as a diversion to facili- 
tate ever;/ proposed operation, would be highly desirable. (Defense, Appendix.) 

Second. It will be remarked in the letter of Lord George Germaiue, he announces 
" the King's determination," to employ the army in Canada " upon two expeditions," 
one by Burgoyne and the other by St. Leger, thus placing both on the same footing. 
See the extract from the letter in the fourth section of this Appendix. 



Appendix to Hon. Ellis ]I. Eobeuts' Address. 135 

The third uiitliority to bi^ citoii on this poiut is the British AnuuiU Register for 
1777 (iiiuii-r tliL' aiL-iijiccs at h-ust nf Kduiuiid Burke), wliere we read: " In tliese 
ciiiljurrassiMg and diliiciilt circumstances General Burgoyne received information 
tliat Colonel St. Legor had arrived before, and was conducting his operations against 
Fort Stanwix. He instantly and justly conceived that a rapid movement forward 
at this critical period would be of utmost importance. If the enemy proceeded up 
the Mohawk aud that St. Loger succeeded, ho would be liable to get between two 
fires, or at any rate, General Burgoyne's army would get between him aud Albany, so 
that he must either stand an action or, by i>assiug the Hudson River, endeavor to 
secure a retreat higher up to the New England i)rovincc,s. If, on the other Land, he 
abandoned Fort Stanwix to its fate, and fell back to Albany, the Mohawk country 
would of course be entirely laid open, the juncture with St. Leger established, and 
the entire army at liberty and leisure to prescribe and choose its future line of 
o))eratious." 

General Burgoyne in his Defense (p. 102), nses these words : " It will likewise be 
remembered that Lieutenant-Colouel St. Leger was at this time before Fort Stan- 
wix ; every hour was i)regnant with critical events." 

The History of the Civil War, by an officer of the (British) Army, London, 1780, 
p. 384, says : 

" Fortune, which had been hitherto favorable tf> General Burgoyne, now began to 
withdraw her caresses, and, like a flirting female, broke from him in the moment of 
possession." 

Consult also section thirteenth of this Appendix. 

12. GovEiiNoii Clinton i>n the B.\ttle op OnisKANr and thfo Tkyon County 

Militia. (Pages 88-92.) 

The following important letter i.s found in the original manuscript in the State 
Library at Albany. It was addressed to the several colonels in Tryon county. 

" Headquarters, Half Moon, 22d August, 1777. 
"Sir: While I have the highest sense of the loyalty, valor and bravery of the 
militia of Tryon county, manifested in the victory gained by them under the com- 
mand of their late worthy General Herkimer, for which, as the chief magistrate of 
the free and independent State of New York, they have my most hearty thanks, it 
gives me the greatest pain to be informed that any difficulty should arise in their 
joining the army under General Arnold, aud thereby enabling him to finish the war 
in that quarter, by raising the siege of Fort Schuyler, and destroying the enemy's 
army in that quarter, and restoring peace and safely to the inhabitants of Tryon 
county. Their noble exertions against the common enemy have already gained them 
the greatest honor, their perseverance will secure them peace and safety. lu both 
I am greatly interested, and it is iny duty and I hereby most positively order that 
you immediately join General Arnold with one-half of your regiment completely 
armed, equipped and accoutred, and march under his command to the relief of Fort 
Schuyler. As soon as the service will admit General Arnold will dismiss you. If 
any are hardy enough to refuse to obey your orders, given in consequence of this, 
you are immediately to report the names of the same to General Arnold, who will 
transmit the same to me, that they may be dealt with, with the utmost rigor of the 
law. 

" I am your obedient servant, 

"GEORGE CLINTON." 



136 Centennial Celebrations. 

Frederick Saiamons iu liis maiuiscript narrativo, states that Arnold, aftor he had 
relieved the Fort, " directly marched his troops to Stillwater." Saiumoiis was iu 
this army. He had been off ou duty as a scout Iu the early days of August. 

13. The Mohawk Valley at Saratoga. (Page 92 ) 

The " History of the Civil War iu America, by an Officer in the British Army," 
Captain Hall, Loudon, 1780, says, p. 397 : " The retreat of Colonel St. Leger inspired 
the enemy with fresh ardor, and as they had now no longer any thing to fear on the 
Mohawk river, a numerous and hardy militia from that couutry immediately joined 
their army in the neighborhood of Albany, wliicli now advanced and took post near 
Stillwater, where they were also joined lay a body of troops under Arnold, who had, 
in fact, been detached to the relief of Fort Stauwix, tliough he was at a great dis- 
tance when the finesse of the garrison succeeded iu saving the place." 

" Botta's History of the United States " declares specifically : The successes of 
the Americans under the walls of Fort Schuyler (Stauwix), besides having inspired 
the militia, produced also the other happy effect of enabling them, relieved from the 
fear of invasion in the country upon the Mohawk, to unite all their forces against 
the army of Burgoyne." (Vol. 1, p. 465.) 

In the " History of the war with America, France and Spain, by John Andrews, 
LL. D." (Loudon, 1786), vol. 2, p. 403, the case is thus stated : " The failure of the 
expedition against Fort Stanwix, together with the defeat of Bennington, were very 
severe blows to the British interest in those parts. They animated the Americans 
to a surprising degree. They began now confidently to promise themselves that 
General Burgojuie himself would share the same fate as his officers." 

General Burgoyne, iu a letter to Lord Germaine, dated Camp, near Saratoga, 
August 20, 1777, says : " I am afraid the expectations of Sir J. Johnson greatly fail 
in the rising of the couutry. Ou this side I find daily reason to doubt the sincerity 
of the resolution of the professing loyalists. I have about four hundred, but not 
half of them armed, who may be depended upon ; the rest are trimmers, merely 
actuated by interest. The great bulk of the couutry is undoubtedly with the Con- 
gress, iu piuciple and zeal ; and their measures are executed with a secrecy and dis- 
patch that are not to be equaled." 

General Burgoyne, in his Defense (p. 114), presents this as a conclusive argument 
in his own behalf : 

" The circumstances of the action at Bennington established a yet more melan- 
choly conviction of the fallacy of any dependence upon supposed friends. The 
noble lord has said, that ' I never despaired of the campaign before the affair at 
Bennington ; that I had no doubt of gaining .Vlbauy in as short a time as the army 
(in duo condition of supply) could accomplish tlie march.' I acknowledge the truth 
of the assertions iu their fullest extent ; all my letters at the time show it. I will 
go further and iu one sense apply with the noble lord the epithet ' fatal ' to the affair 
of Bennington. The knowledge I acquired of the professors of loyalty was ' fatal,' 
and put au end to every expectation from enterprise, unsustained by dint of force. 
It would have been excess of frenzy to have trusted for sustenance to the plentiful 
region of Albany. Had the march thither been unopposed, the enemy, finding the 
British army unsupplied, would only have had to compel the tories to drive the cattle 
and destroy the corn, and the capitulation of Albany instead of Saratoga must have 
followed. "Would the tories have risen ? Why did they not rise around Albany and 
below when they found Mr. Gates' army increasing by separate and distinct parties 
from remote distances? They were better qualified by their situation to catch the 
favorable moment, thau I was to advise it. Why did they not rise iu that populous, 
and, as supposed, well affected district, the German Flats, at the time St. Leger was 



Aj'PENDIX to Hon. Ellis II. Rohkuts' Adduess. 137 

before Fort Stanwix ? A critical insurrection from any one point to create diversion 
woulil probably have secured the success of tlie campaign. But to revert to the 
reasons against a rapid marcli after the affair of Bennington. It was then also 
known that by the false intelligence respecting the streugtli of Fort Stanwix, the 
infamous behavio;' of the Indians and the want of the promised co-operation of the 
loyal inhabitants, St. Leger had been obliged to retreat. The first plausible motive 
in favor of hazardous liaste, the facilitating his descent of tlie Mohawli, was at an 
end." 

It is pleasant to add to this testimony the following 

Council of Safety to John Hancock, President op CoNGnEss. 

Kingston, August 36, 1777. 
" Sir: I have the honor of transmitting to you the letters of General Schuyler and 
Governor Clinton, giving us the agreeable intelligence of the raising of the siege of 
Fort Schuyler. The gallantry of the commander of the garrison of that Fort and 
the distinguished bravery of General Herkimer and his militia, have already been 
productive of the most desirable consequences. The brave and more fortunate 
General Stark with his spiritefl countrymen hath, as you know, given the enemy a 
signal coup at Bennington. Tlie joini result of these providential instances of 
success hath revived the drooping hopes of the desponding, and given new vigor to 
the firm and determined. We have therefore the pleasing expectation of compelling 
General Burgoyne in his turn to retire. I have the honor to be, &c., 

PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT. 

14. The British Account of the Affair. (Pages 82, 90, 92, 93.) 

The British Annual Register for 1777, makes the following statement of the affair, 
which has become the standard British history : 

" St. Leger's attempt upon Fort Stanwix (now named by the Americans Fort 
Schuyler), was soon after its commencement favored by a success so signal as would, 
in other cases and a more fortunate season, have been decisive, as to the fate of a 
stronger and more important fortress. General Herkimer, a leading man of that 
country, was marching at the head of eight or nine hundred of the Tryon county 
militia, with a convoy of provisions, to the relief of the fort. St. Leger, well aware 
of the danger of being attacked in his trenches, and of withstanding the whole 
weight of the garrison in some particular and probably weak point at the same 
instant, judiciously detached'Sir John Johnson with some regulars, the whole or part 
of his own regiment and the savages, to lie in ambush in the wood and interrupt the 
enemy upon their march. 

" It should seem by the conduct of the militia and their leader that they were 
not only totally ignorant of all military duties, but that they had even never heard 
by report of tlie nature of an Indian war, or of that peculiar service in the woods, 
to which from its nature and situation this country was at all times liable. Without 
examination of their ground, witliout a reconnoitering or flanking party, they plunged 
blindly into the trap that was laid for their destruction. Being thrown into a sudden 
and inevitable disorder, by a near and heavy fire on almost all sides, it was completed 
by the Indians who, instantly pursuing their fire, rushed in upon their broken ranks 
and made a most dreadful slaughter amongs't them with their epears and hatchets. 
Xotwilhstanding their want of conduct the militia showed no want of courage in 
tlicir deiilorable situation. In the midst of such extreme danger, and so bloody an 
execution, rendered still more terrible by the horrid appearance and demeanor of the 
principal actors, they recollected themselves bo far as to recover an advantageous 
18 



•138 Cejsitennial Celebuations. 

ground, which enabled them after to maintaiu a sort of runninfj figlit, by which 
about one third of their number was preserved. 

" The loss was supposed to be on their side about four hundred killed, and half 
that number prisoners. It was thought of the greater consequence, as almost all 
those who were considered as the principal leaders and instigators of reljellion in 
that country were now destroyed. The triumph and exultation were accordingly 
great, and all opposition from the militia in that country was supposed to be at an 
end. Tlie circumstances of old neighljorhood and personal knowledge between 
many of the parties, in the present rage and animosity of faction, could by no means 
be favorable to the extension of mercy ; even supposing that it might have been 
otherwise practiced with prudence and safety, at a time when the power of the 
Indians was rather prevalent, and that their rage was implacable. For according to 
their computation and ideas of loss the savages had purchased this victory exceeding 
dearly, thirty-three of their number having been slain and twenty-nine wounded, 
among whom were several of their principal leaders and of their most distinguished 
and favorite warriors. The loss accordingly rendered them so discontented, intract- 
able and ferocious that the service was greatly aflected by their ill disposition. The 
unhappy prisoners were, however, its first objects, most of whom they inhumanly 
butchered in cold blood. The New Yorkers, rangers and other troops were not 
without loss in this action. 

"On the day, and probably during the time of this engagement, the garrison 
having received intelligence of the approach of their friends, endeavored to make a 
diversion in their favor by a vigorous and well-conducted sally, under the direction 
of Colonel Willet, their second in command. AVillet conducted his business with 
ability and spirit. He did considerable mischief in the camp, brought oif some 
trophies, no inconsiderable spoil, some of which consisted in articles that were 
greatly wanted, a few prisoners, and retired with little or no loss. He afterward 
undertook, in company witli another officer, a much more perilous expedition. They 
passed by night through the besiegers' works, and in contempt of the danger and 
cruelty of the savages, made their way for fifty miles through pathless woods and 
unexplored morasses, in order to raise the country and bring relief to the fort. Such 
an action demands the praise even of an enemy. 

" Colonel St. Leger left no means untried to profit of his victory by intimidating the 
garrison. He sent verbal and written messages stating their hopeless situation, tho 
utter destruction of their friends, tho impossibility of their obtaining relief, as 
General Burgoyne, after destroying every tiling in his power, was now at Albany re- 
ceiving the suljmission of all the adjoining counties, and by prodigiously magnifying 
his.own force. He represented that in this state of things, if through an incorrigible 
obstinacy they should continue hopeless and fruitless defense, they would, accord- 
ing to the practice of most civilized nations, be cut off from all conditions and 
every hope of mercy. But lie was particularly direct upon the pains he had taken 
in softening the rage of the Indians from their late loss and obtaining from them 
security that in case of an immediate surrender of the fort every man of the garri- 
son should be spared, while on the otlier hand they declared, with utmost bitter 
execrations that if they met with any further resistance they would not only massa- 
cre the garrison, but that every man, woman and child in the Mohawk country would 
necessarily, and however against his will, fall sacrifices to the fury of the savages. 
Tliis point, lie said, he pressed entirely on the score of humanity. He promised on 
his part, in case of an immediate surrender, every attention which a humane and 
generous enemy could give. The Governor. Colonel Qansevoort, behaved with great 
firmness. He replied that he had been intrusted with the charge of that garrison 
by the United States of America; that he would defend the trust committed to his 
care ateverv hazard and to tlie utmost extremitv, and that he should not at all con- 



Ai'i'KXDix TO Hox. Ellis 11. Robeuts' Address. 139 

ceru liiniself about any consequences that attended the discharge of his duty It 
was slirewdly remarlied in tlio fort tliat half the pains would not have been taken to 
display the force immediately without, or the success at a distance, if they bore any 
proportion at all to the magnitude in which they were represented. 

" The British commander was much disappointed in the stale of tiie fort. It was 
stronger, in belter condition, and much better defended than he expected. After 
great labor in his approach he found his artillery deficient, being insufficient in 
weight to make any considerable impression. The only remedy was to bring his 
approaches so near that they must take effect, which he set about with the greatest 
diligence. 

" In the mean time the Indums continued sullen and untractable. Their late losses 
might have been cured by certain advantages, but the misfortune was they had yet 
got no plunder, and their prospect of getting any seemed to grow every day fainter. 
It is the peculiar characteristic of that people to exhibit in certain instances degrees 
of courage and jjerseveranee which shock reason and credibility, and to portray in 
others the greatest irresolution and timidity, with a total want of that constancy 
which might enable them for any length of time to struggle with difficulty. 

"Whilst the commander was carrying on his operations with the utmost industry 
the Indians received a flying report that Arnold was coming with 1,000 men to relieve 
the fort. The commander endeavored to hasten them, by promising to lead them him- 
self, to bring all his best troops into action, and by carrying their leaders out to mark 
a field of battle, and the flattery of consulting them upon the intended plans of ope- 
ration. Whilst ho was thus endeavoring to soothe the temper and to revive their 
flagging spirits, other scouts arrived with intelligence, probably contrived in part by 
themselves, wliicli first doubled and afterward trebled the number of the enemy, 
with the comfortable addition that Burgoyne's army was entirely cut to pieces. 

" The Colonel returned to camp, and called a council of their chiefs, hoping that 
by the influence which Sir John .lohnson and Superintendents Clans and Butler, had 
over them, they might still be induced to make a stand. He was disappointed. A 
part of the Indians decamped whilst the council was sittijigand the remainder threat- 
ened peremptorily to abandon him if he did not immediately retreat. 

"The retreat was of course precipitate, or it was rather, in plain terms, flight, 
attended with disagreeable circumstances. The tents, with most of the artillery, 
fell into the hands of the garrison. It appears by the Colonel's own account that he 
was as apprehensive of danger from the fury of his savage allies, as he could be 
from the resentment of his American enemies. It also appears from the same au- 
thority that the Messasagoes, a nation of savages to the West, plundered several of the 
boats belonging to the army. By the American accounts, which are in part confirmed 
by others, it is said that they robbed the officers of their baggage and of every other 
article to which they took any liking, and the army in general of their provisions. 
They also say that a few miles distance from the camp they first 6tri]>ped of their 
armsand afterward murdered with their own bayonets, all those British, German 
and American soldiers, who from any inability to keep up, fear or any other cause, 
were separated from the main body. 

"The state of the fact with respect to the intended relief of the foi^ is, that 
Arnold had advanced by the way of Half Moon up the Mohawk river with 2,000 
men for that purpose ; and that for the greater expedition he had quitted the main 
body and arrived by forced marches through the woods, with a detachment of 900 at 
the fort, on the twenty-fourth in the evening, two days after the siege had been 
raised. So that upon the whole the inlractablenessof the Indians, with their watch- 
ful apprehension of danger, probably saved them from a chastisement which would 
not have been tenderly administered. 

" Nothing could have been more untoward in the present situation of affairs than 



140 Centennial Celebrations. 

the unfortunate issue of this expedition. The Americans represented this and the 
affair at Bennington as great and glorious victories. Nothing could excel their 
exultation and confidence. Gansevoort and Willet, with General Starlv and Colonel 
Warner, who had commanded at Bennington, were ranlied among those who were 
considered as the saviors of their country. The northern militia began now to look 
high and to forget all distinction between themselves and regular troops. As this 
confidence, opinion and pride increased, the apprehension of General Burgoyne's 
army of course declined, until it soon came to be talked of with indifference and 
contempt, and even its fortune to be publicly prognosticated." 

The account in Andrew's History of the War in America (London, 1786), is a simple 
condensation from the Register. The Dublin History borrows the identical words. 

The History of an " Officer of the Army " (London, 1780), has no new authorities, 
and sheds no different light. 

The " Impartial History of the Civil War " (London, 1780), treats the affair in the 
same spirit. 

William Gordon, D. D., in his "History of the Rise, Progress and Establishment 
of the Independence of the United States of America," (London, 1788,) claims to 
have had access to the papers of Washington and other American generals, and 
writes with the freshness of gossip. His story of Oriskany and Fort Stanwix has this 
character, and he states that he had some of his facts from Reverend Samuel Kirk- 
land. Besides the references elsewhere made, he adds only a few touches of color 
to this local chronicle. 

15. St. Leger's Boast and Confidence. (Page 93.) 

The following extract of a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel St. Leger to Lieutenant- 
General Burgoyne, brought through the woods by an Indian, dated before Fort 
Stanwix, August 11, 1777, is copied from Almon's "American Remembrancer for 
1777," p. 393 : 

" After combating the natural difficulties of the river St. Lawrence and the arti- 
ficial ones the enemy threw in my way at Wood Creek, I invested Fort Stanwix the 
third instant. On the fiftli I learned from discovering parties on the Mohawk river 
that a bod)' of one thousand militia were on their rnarch to raise the siege. On the 
confirmation of this news I moved a large body of Indians, with some troops the 
same night, to lay in ambuscade for them on their march. They fell into it. The 
completest victory was obtained ; above four hundred lay dead on the field, amongst 
the number of whom were almost all the principal movers of rebellion in that 
country. There are six or seven hundred men in the fort. The militia will never 
rally ; all that I am to apprehend, therefore, that will retard my progress in joining 
you, is a reinforcement of what they call their regular troops, by the way of Half 
Moon, up the Mohawk river. A diversion, therefore, from your army by that quarter 
will greatly expedite my j unction with either of the grand armies." 

Tlie Remembrancer for that year gives as a letter from Sir Guy Carleton a state- 
ment " That Colonel St. Leger, finding Fort Stanwix too strongly fortified and the 
garrison too numerous to be taken by assault, and the Indians being alarmed by a 
false repo'rt of the approach of a large body of the rebel continental troops, he had 
given over the attempt of forcing a passage down tlie Mohawk river, and returned 
to Montreal, from whence he had proceeded to Ticonderoga, intending to join Lieu- 
tenant-General Burgoyne by that route." 

16. Bennington Counted Befoue Oriskany in Time. (Page 93.) 

Stedman's (British) History of the Revolution, p. 353, says ; 

" The defeat of Colonels Baum, Breyman and St. Leger enervated the British cause 



Appendix to Hoivr. Ellis H. Roberts' Address. 141 

in no ordinary degree. There were many of the inhabitants not attached to eitlier 
party by principle, and who had resolved to join themselves to that which should be 
successful. These men, after the disasters at Bennington and Stauwix, added a sud- 
den and powerful increase of strength to the Americans." 

17. COLONEi., Claus' Letter to Secuetaut Knox at London. (Pages 83, 87, 88.) 

In the eighth volume of the Documents relating to the Colonial History of New 
York (p. 718 and following) is an ollicial letter from Colonel Daniel Claus, written 
from Montreal, October 16, 1777, which was brought to light after all the histories 
of the Battle of Oriskany, which are generally familiar, were written. It is neces- 
sary to complete the record. Colonel Claus writes: 

" Sir — I take the liberty to give you such an account of the expedition I was 
appointed to this campaign, as my capacity will permit me, and which, though 
tedious, I used all the conciseness in my power. 

" On my arrival at Quebec the first of June, Sir Guy Carleton being at Montreal, 
my letter from Lord George Germaine was forwarded to him by Lieutenant-Gover 
nor Cramahe that day, and myself arrived there a few days after. I waited upon 
Sir Guy, who acknowledged the receipt of the letter, but said nothing further upon 
it, than addressing himself to Captain Tice, who was in England with Joseph (Brant) 
and there at Levy, that I had now the command of him and those Indian officers and 
Indians that were destined for Brigadier St. Leger's expedition. A day or two after 
I waited on him again for hi.s orders and instructions, and asked what rank I was to 
have on the expedition. He replied on the latter, that it could not be settled 
here. * * * 

" Some time before our march I informed myself of Sir Guy Carleton, of the state 
Fort Stanwix was in ; he told me that by the latest accounts from Colonel Butler, 
there were sixty men in a picketed place. Determined to be sure, I dispatched one 
John Hare, an active Indian officer, with the Mohawk chief John Odiseruuey, to col- 
lect a small party of Indians at Swegachy and reconnoitre Fort Stanwix, as well as 
possible and bring off some prisoners if they could. 

" On the twenty-third of June, I set out from LaChine near Montreal. The Brig- 
adier who was getting the artillery boats ready to take in two sixes, two threes, and 
four Cohorns (being our artillery for the expedition), was to follow the day after ; 
and proceeded for an island destined for our rendezvous, in the entrance of Lake 
Ontario, called Buck island, in company with Sir John Johnson and his regiment. 
In my way thither I collected a body of a hundred and fifty Misisagey and Six 
Nation Indians. All the Indians of the inhabited part of Canada whom I had under 
my care for fifteen years, and was best acquainted with, were destined for General 
Burgoyne's army. The Misisagey and Six Nations, the Brigadier intended should 
accompany him in an alert to Fort Stanwix, by a short cut through the woods, from 
a place called Salmon Creek on Lake Ontario, about twenty miles from Oswego, in 
order to surprise the garrison and take it with small arms. 

"Between sixty and seventy leagues from Montreal my reconnoltering party 
returned and met me, with five prisoners (one lieutenant) and four scalps, having 
defeated a working party of sixteen rebels as they were cutting sods toward repair, 
ing and finishing the old fort, which is a regular square, and garrisoned by upwards 
of six hundred men, the repairs far advanced and the rebels expecting us, and were 
acquainted with our strength and route. I immediately forwarded the prisoners to 
the Brigadier who was about fifteen leagues in our rear. On his arrival within a 
few leagues of Buck Island he sent for me, and, talking over the intelligence the 
rebel prisoners gave, he owned that if they intended to defend themselves in that 
fort our artillery was not sufficient to take it. However, he said, he has determined 



142 Centennial Celebrations. 

to get tlie truth of tliese fellows. I told him that having examined them separately 
they agreed in their story. And here the Brigadier had still an opportunity and 
time of sending for a better train of artillery and wait for tlie junction of the Chas- 
seurs, which must have secured us success, as every one will allow. However, he 
was still full of his alert, making little of the prisoner's intelligence. 

" On his arrival at Buck Island the eighth of July, he put me in orders as super- 
intendent of the expedition and empowered me to act for the best of my judgment 
for His Majesty's service, in the management of the Indians on the expedition, as 
well as what regarded their equipment, presents, etc., he being an entire stranger 
thereto. There was tlien a vessel at the Island which had some Indian goods on 
board, which Colonel Butler had procured for the expedition, but upon examination 
I found that almost every one of the above articles I demanded at Montreal were 
deficient and a mere impossibility to procure them at Buck Island, had I not luckily 
provided some of those articles before I left Montreal at my own risk, and witli 
difficulty Brigadier St. Leger found out thirty stand of arms iu the artillery stores 
at Swegachy, and I added all my eloquence to satisfy the Indians about the rest. 

"The Brigadier set out from the Island upon his alert the nineteenth of July, I 
having been ordered to proceed to Oswego with Sir John Johnson's regiment and a 
company of Chasseurs lately arrived, there to convene and prepare the Indians 
to join the Brigadier at Fort Stanwix. On my arrival at Oswego, twenty-third July, 
I found Joseph Brant there, who acquainted me that his party, consisting of about 
three hundred Indians, would be in that daj', and having been more than two months 
upon service, were destitute of necessaries, ammunition and some arms. Joseph at 
the same time complaining of having been very scantily supplied by Colonel Butler 
with ammunition when at Niagara in the spring,\although he acquainted Colonel 
Butler of his being threatened with a visit from the rebel. General Herkimer, of 
Tryou county, and actually was afterward visited by him with three hundred men 
with him, and five hundred at some distance ; when Joseph had not two hundred 
Indians together, but, resolutely declaring to the rebel General that he was deter- 
mined to act against them for the King, he obliged them to retreat with mere men- 
aces, not having twenty pounds of powder among his party. 

"The twenty-fourth of July I received an express from Brigadier St. Leger, at 
Salmon Creek, about twenty miles from Oswego, to repair thither with what arms 
and Vermillion I had, and that he wished I would come prepared for a march through 
tlie woods As to arms and vermilion I had none, but prepared myself to go upon 
the march, and was ready to set off when Joseph came into my tent and told me that 
as no person was on the spot to take care of the number of Indians witli him, he appre- 
hended in case I should leave them they would become disgusted, and disperse, which 
might prevent the rest of the Six Nations to assemble, and be hurtful to the expedition, 
and begged, I would first represent these circumstances to the Brigadier by letter. 
Brigadier St. Leger mentioned indeed, my going was chiefly intended to quiet the 
Indians with him, who were very drunk and riotous, and Captain Tice, who was the 
messenger, informed me that the Brigadier ordered the Indians a quart of rum 
apiece, which made them all lieastly drunk, and in which case it is not in the power 
of man to quiet them. Accordingly, I mentioned to the Brigadier Ijy letter the con- 
sequences that might affect his Majesty's Indian interest in case I was to leave so 
large a numl^er of Indians that were come already and still expected. Upon which 
representation, and finding tlie Indians disapproved of the plan, and were unwilling 
to proceed, the Brigadier came away from Salmon Creek and arrived the next day at 
Oswego, with the companies of t'ae eightli and thirty-fourth regiments and about 
two hundred and fifty Indians. 

"Having equipped Joseph's party with what necessaries and ammunition I had, I 
appointed the rest of the Six Nations to assemble at the Three Rivers, a convenient 



Appendix to Hon. Ellis H. Roberts' Address. 148 

place of rendezvous, and in the way to Fort Stanwix, and desired Colonel Butler to 
follow me with the Indians he brought with him from Niagara, and equip them all 
at Three Rivers. 

" The twenty-sixth of July left Oswego, and second of August arrived with the 
Brigadier and the greatest part of the troops before Fort Stanwix, which was 
invested the same evening. The enemy having stopped up a narrow river, called 
Wood Creek, by cutting of trees across it for about twenty miles, along which our 
artillery, provisions and baggage were to pass, which passage to cut open required a 
number of men, as well as cutting a road through the woods for twenty-live miles, 
to bring up the artillery, stores, etc., that were immediately wanted, which weakened 
our small army greatly. 

" The third, fourth and fifth the Indians surrounded the fort and fired from behind 
logs and rising grounds, at the garrison, wherever they had an object, which pre- 
vented them from working at the fortifications in the day. The fifth, in the after- 
noon, accounts were brought by Indians, sent by Joseph's sister from Canajoharie, 
that a body of rebels were on their march and would be within ten or twelve miles 
of our camp by night. .\ detachment of about four hundred Indians was ordered 
to reconnoitre the enemy. Sir John Johnson asked leave to join his company of 
light infantry and head the whole, which was granted. Colonel Butler and other 
Indian officers were ordered with the Indians. 

" The rebels having an imperfect account of the number of Indians that joined us 
(being upward of eight hundred), not thinking them by one-fourth as many, and 
being sure as to our strength and artillery (which we learned by prisoners), that they 
knew it from their emissaries before we left Canada. They, therefore, on the sixth, 
marched on, to the number of upwards of eight hundred, with security and care- 
lessness. 

"When within six miles of the Fort they were waylaid by our party, surprised, 
briskly attacked, and after a little resistance, repulsed and defeated ; leaving 
upwards of five hundred killed on the spot, among which were their principal offi- 
cers and ringleaders ; their general was shot through the knee, and a few days 
afterward died of an amputation. 

" We lost Captains Hare and Wilson of the Indians, Lieutenant McDonald of Sir 
John's regiment, two or three privates and thirty-two Indians, among which were 
several Seneka chiefs killed. Captain Watts, Lieutenant Singleton of Sir John's 
regiment, and thirty-three Indians wounded. 

" During the action when the garrison found the Indians' camp (who went out 
against their reinforcement) empty, they boldly sallied out with three hundred men, 
and two field pieces, and took away the Indians' packs, with their clothes, wampum 
and silver work, " they having gone in their shirts, as naked to action ; " and when 
they found a party advancing from our civmp, they returned with their spoil, taking 
with them Lieutenant Singleton and a private of Sir John's regiment, who lay 
wounded in the Indian camp. 

" The disappointment was rather greater to the Indians than their loss, for they 
had nothing to cover themselves at night, or against the weather, and nothing in 
our camp to sup]>ly them till I got to Oswego. 

" .\fter this defeat and having got part of our artillery up, some cohoru shells were 
thrown into tlii! Fort, and a few shots fired. A flag then was sent with an account 
of the disaster of their intended relief, and the garrison was summoned to surrender 
prisoners of war, to be marched down the country, leaving baggage, &c., behind, to 
satisfy the Indians for their losses. 

" The rebels knowing their strength in garrison, as well as fortification, and the 
insufficiency of our field pieces to hurt tliera, and apprehensive of being massacred 



144 Centennial Celebrations. 

by the Indians, for the losses sustained in the action ; they rejected the summons and 
said they were determined to hold out to the extremity. 

" The siege then was carried on with as much vigor as possible for nineteen days, 
but to no purpose. Sir John Johnson proposed to follow the blow given to the rein- 
forcements (who were chiefly Mohawk river people), to march down the country with 
about two hundred men, and I intended joining him with a sufficient body of Indians 
but the Brigadier said he could not spare the men, and disapproved of it. The inhab- 
itants in general were ready ^as we afterward learned) to sabmit and come in. A. 
flag then was sent to invite the inhabitants to submit and be forgiven, and assurance 
given to prevent the Indians from being outrageous ; but the commanding officer of 
the German Flats, hearing of it, seized the flag, consisting of Ensign Butler of the 
Eighth Regiment, ten soldiers and three Indians, and took them up as spies. A few 
days after. General Arnold, coming with some cannon and a reinforcement, made the 
inhabitants return to their obedience. The Indians, finding that our besieging the 
fort was of no effect, our troops but few, a reinforcement, as was reported, of fifteen 
hundred or two thousand men with field pieces by the way, began to be dispirited 
and fell off' by degrees. The chiefs advised the Brigadier to retreat to Oswego and 
get better artillery from Niagara, and more men, and so return and renew the siege ; 
to which the Brigadier agreed, and accordingly retreated on the twenty-second of 
August. On our arrival at Oswego the twenty-sixth and examining into the state 
of the troops' necessaries, the men were without shoes and other things which only 
could be got at Montreal, the Brigadier at the same time having received a letter 
from General Burgoyne to join him, either by a march tlirough the woods back of 
Tryon county (which was impracticable), or the way he came. He adopted the lat- 
ter on account of procuring necessaries for the men. The Indians were as much as 
possible reconciled to this resolution, with a promise that they should be convened 
as soon as Colonel Butler could return from Montreal with some necessaries for them. 
There being Indian traders at Oswego, I saw myself under a necessity to clothe 
those Indians that lost their packs by the rebels at Fort Stanwix, which made them 
return home contented. 

" Thus has an expedition miscarried merely for want of timely and good intel- 
ligence. For it is impossible to believe that had the Brigadier St. Leger known 
the real state of the fort and garrison of Fort Stanwix, he could possibly have pro- 
ceeded from Montreal without a suflttcient train of artillery and his full complement 
of troops. And yet by what I find, very large sums have been expended on account 
of Government at Niagara upon the Indians these two years past, and they at the 
same time kept inactive ; whereas, had these presents been properly applied, the 
Six Nations might not only prevent Fort Stanwix from being re-established, but even 
let not a rebel come near it or keep it up ; it being almost in the heart of their 
country, and they with reluctance saw the Crown erect a fort there last war. All 
the good done by the expedition was, the ringleaders and principal men of the rebels 
of Tryon county were put out of the way ; but had we succeeded, it must be of vast 
good effect to the Northern operations, and its miscarrying, I apprehend, to my deep 
concern, to be the reverse." 

18. Roster op Oriskany. (Page 84.) 

For several weeks in June and July, 1877, the Utica Herald appealed to the 
descendants of those engaged in the battle, and to all others, for names to make up 
a Roster of Oriskany, to preserve the names of all persons who took part in that 
important action. As the sum of its eflbrts, from all sources, that journal gathered 
tlie following list : 



iVppENDix TO IIox. Ellis H. Egberts' Audkess. 145 

•Brigadier-General Nicholas Herkimer ; Captain George Herkimer (Descendants, 
Warren Herkimer, Janosville, Wis.; Anne Herkimer Greene, Herkimer; Adilda 
Herkimer Eaton, Herkimer ; Emily Herkimer Greene, Little Falls); Colonel Freder- 
ick Vissclier, Mohawk (Descendant, S. G. Visscher, liome); * Colonel Ebenezer 
Cox, Canajoharie ; Colonel Jacob G. Klock, Palatine (Descendant, Josiah Shall, 
■ Hion) ; Colonel Peter Bellinger, German Flats: * Frederick Aver (Oyer) Schuyler; 
I Major Blauvelt, Mohawk; f Captain George Henry Bell, Fall Hill; * Joseph Bell, 
Fall Hill; Nicholas Bell, Fall Hill ; f Captain John Breadbeg, Palatine; John Henry 
Adam Becher, Little Falls ; Adam Bellinger ; Colonel John Bellinger, Utica ; Wm. 
P. Bellinger, Utica (Descendant, Henry B. Ostrom, Utica); | Lieutenant-Colonel 
Frederick Bellinger, German Flats; * Samuel Billington, Palatine, Committee of 
Safety; —Billington; * Major John Blevin ; f Captain Jacob Bowman, Cana- 
joharie; John Boyer ; Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Campbell, Cherry Valley 
(Descendant, Judge W. W.Campbell, Cherry Valley) ; * Lieutenant Robert Camp- 
hell, Cherry Valley; Major Samuel Clyde, Cherry Valley (Descendants, Jefferson 
N.Clyde, Alfred G.Clyde, Cherry Valley ; DeWitt C. Clyde, Middlefield) ; Jacob 
Castler ; John Castler ; Adam Gassier (Father of John A. Cassler, Minden) ; Jacob 
Clemens, Schuyler ; (Descendant, Michael Clemens, Schuyler) ; Captain A. Copeman, 
Minden; Richard Coppernoll ; "^Robert Crouse, Canajoharie; * Benjamin Davis; 

* Captain John Davis, Mohawk; Martinus Davis, Mohawk (a brother of Captain 
John Davis) ; Nicholas DeGratf, Amsterdam; Captain John Marx Demuth, Deerfield ; 

* Captain Andrew Dillenback, Palatine; John Doxtader, German Flats; Captain 
Henry Diefendorf, Canajoharie ; Hon. (John) Peter Dunckel, Freysbush ; Hon. Garrett 
Dunckel, Freysbush ; Hon. Nicholas Dunckel, Freysbush ; Francis Dunckel, Freys- 
bush ; * John Dygert, Committee of Safety ; Captain William Dygert, German Flats 
(Descendant, James M. Dygert, Hion) ; * Major John Eisenlord, Stone Arabia ; Peter 
Ehle, Palatine; Jacob Empie, Palatine ; William Cox, St. Johusville ; Henry Failing, 
Canajoharie , Jelles Fonda ; Captain Adam Fonda ; Valentine Fralick, Palatine ; 
}f Major John Frey, Palatine; * Captain Christopher P. Fox, Palatine; Christo- 
pher W. Fox, Palatine; Charles Fox, Palatine; Peter Fox, Palatine ; Christopher 
Fox, Palatine (Nephews of Christopher W. Fox) ; Peter Folts, Fort Herkimer 
(Grandson, Jacob P. Folts, Oneida.) George Geortner, Canajoharie ; Captain Law- 
rence Gros, Minden ; * Nicholas Gray, Palatine ; Lieutenant Samuel Gray, Herkimer 

(Descendant, Colonel I.J. Gray, Utica); Captain Graves; Captain Jacob 

Gardinier, Mohawk ; Lieutenant Samuel Gardinier, Mohawk; * Lieutenant Petrus 
Groot, Amsterdam ; Henry Harter, German Flats ; John Adam Helmer, German 
Flats ; * Captain Frederick Helmer, German Flats; John Heyck, Palatine ; Nicholas 
Hill ; Lieutenant Yost Hou.se, Minden ; John Hoover, Little Falls ; * Lieutenant- 
Colonel Abel Hunt, Canajoharie ; Andrew Keller, Palatine ; Christian Huffnail, 
Minden ; Jacob Keller, Palatine ; Solomon Keller, Palatine ; * Major Dennis Klap- 
sattle, German Flats; Jacob Klapsattle, German Flats ; Peter Kilts, Palatine ; George 
Lintner, Minden ; George Ligh thai 1, Minden ; Henry Louus, Minden ; Solomon Long- 
shore, Canajoharie; Lieutenant Peter Loucks, Little Falls; Peter Loucks, Little 
Falls; * Jacob Markell, Springfield (Descendant, Oliver Markoll, Springfield 
Center) ; * William Merckley. Palatine ; John P. Miller, Minden ; Jacob Moyer, 
(now Myers) Gernuxn Flats; Lieutenant David McMaster, Florida; Adan» 
Miller, Minden; Henry Miller, Minden; David Murray, Fonda; Christian 
Nelles; John D. Nellis, Palatine (Descendant, Mrs. A. 0. Jonnson, Marcy) ; Peter 
Nestle, Palatine ; *Honorable Isaac Paris, Palatine, and his son who was also killed ; 
John Marx Petri, Little Falls; *Ijieutenant Dederiah Marx Petrie, Herkimer; Dr. 

• Killed t Wounded. t Taken prisoner. 

10 



146 Centennial Celebkations. 

William Petry, Herkimer, Committee of Safety (Grandsons, Robert and Samuel 
Earl); fJoseph Petry, Dayton; *Captain Samuel Pettingill, Moliawk ; fAdam Price, 
Minden ; Nicholas Pickard, Minden ; RicLard Putnam, Mohawk ; Abraham D. 
Quackenboss ; f Jacob Rachiour, Minden ; George Raynor, Minden ; Captain Nicholas 
Rector, Garoga ; John Rother (Roth) Minden ; John Adam Hartman, Herkimer ; 
Colonel John Roof, Fort Stanwix (Descendant, Dr. F. A. Roof, Rhinebeck) ; Mars 
Raspach, Kingsland ; (Descendant, John A. Rasbach, Ilion) ; Henry Sanders, Min- 
den ; Samson Sammons, Fonda, Committee of Safety ; Jacob Sammons, Fonda 
(Descendant, Colonel Simeon Sammons) ; *Wi]liam Schaver ; Ensign John Jacob 
School, Palatine ; *Colonel Saffreness Seeber, Canajoliarie (Descendants, Wil- 
liam Seeber, Saflreness Seeber, Milford) ; *Private James Seeber, Cauajoharie ; 
fCaptain Jacob Seeber, Canajoharie ; fLieutenaut William Seeber, Canajoharie 
(Descendants, Luther Seeber, Saflfreness Seeber, James W. Seeber, Nicholas See- 
ber, William Seeber, Adam Seeber); *Private Henry Seeber, Canajoharie ; Lieu- 
tenant John Seeber, Minden ; *Rudolph Seeber. Minden ; Peter Sitz, Palatine ; 
Rudolph Siebert ; Thomas Spencer, Indian Interpreter ; Christian Schell, Little 
Falls ; George Smith, Palatine (Descendant, C. M. Smith, Steuben, N- Y) ; Naomi 
Brooks, Boonville ; Nicholas Smith (Father of Colonel Nicholas Smith, Utica) ; 
Colonel Henry Starin, Schuyler (Descendant J. H. Starin, New York) ; Captain 
Rudolph Shoemaker, Canajoharie ; Thomas Shoemaker, German Flats ; *Joseph 
Snell, Snellbush, now Manheim ; *Jacob Snell, Snellbush, now Manheim ; Peter 
Snell, Snellbush, now Jlanheim ; George Snell, Snellbush, now Manheim ;* John 
Snell, Stone Arabia ; (the above were brothers) ; *John Snell, Jr., Stone Arabia (a son 
of George and a fifer) ; "-Frederick Snell, Snellbush. (Of the Snells Mr. Simms writes : 
It has been said for many years that nine Snells went into the battle and that seven 
of the number remained there. We have made an effort to trace them out and here 
is the result thus far ; Five brothers and a relation, perhaps a cousin, and a son of 
one of the brothers.) Lieutenant Jeremiah Swafts, Mohawk ; John G. Sillenbeck ; 
John Sliults, Palatine ; George Shults, Stone Arabia ; *Frederick Stevens, German 
Flats (Descendant, Henry Stevens, Columbia) ; Peter Summer ; Adam Thumb, Pala- 
tine (Descendant, Absolom Thumb, St. Johnsville) ; Jacob Timmermau, St. Johnsville ; 
Lieutenant Henry Timmerman, St. Johnsville ; Henry Thompson, Fultonville ; Lieu- 
tenant Martin C.Van Alstine, Canajoharie ; *John Van Antwerp; George Van Deu- 
sen, Canajoharie; Peter Van Alstine, Root; Evert Van Epps, Fultonville; Thomas 
Van Horn, Vanhornsville ; Henry Vedder; fConrad Vols (now Foltz), German Flats; 
Lieutenant Jacob Vols, German Flats; *Major Ilarmanus Van Slyck, Palatine; 
*Major Nicholas Van Slyck ; Captain John Visscher, Mohawk ; ifLieutenant-Colonel 
Henry Walradt, German Flats ; George Walter, Palatine ; Major George E. Watts ; 
Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Waggoner, Palatine ; Lieutenant Peter Waggoner, Jr., 
Palatine ; George Waggoner, Palatine ; John Waggoner, Palatine (Descendants, 
the Wagner family of Palatine Bridge) ; Jacob Wagner, Cauajoharie ; John Wagner 
Canajoharie ; Garrett Walrath ; Lieutenant Henry Walrath ; Peter Westerman, 
Cauajoharie ; *John Wollover, Fort Herkimer ; Abraham Woolover, Fort Herkimer ; 
f Peter Wollover, Fort Herkimer ; -^Richard AVollover, Fort Herkimer ; Jacob Wever, 
German Flats; Peter Jams Weaver, German Flats ; Michael Widrick, Schuyler ; 
*Lawrence Wrenkle, Fort Herkimer (Descendant, Jacob Wrinkle, Forestport, Oneida 
county) ; f Dr. Moses Younglove, Surgeon ; Captain Robert Yates ; fNicholas Yerdon, 

Minden. 

Officers at Port Stanwix. 

Peter Gansevoort, Colonel ; Marinus Willett, Lieutenant-Colonel (Descendant, 
Rev. Wm. M. Willett, Bergen, N. J) ; Robert Cochran, Major; George Symes, Adju- 
tant; Thomas Williams, Quartermaster. 

♦Killed. + Wounded. t Taken prisoner. 



Appendix — The Heukuieu Monument. 147 

Mrst Company. — E. Van Bunscliooten, Captain ; Jon. Pearcy, First Lieutenant ; 
Thomas Oostrander, Second Lieutenant. 

Second Company. — Thomas Dewitt, Captain ; Benjamin Bogardu.s, Second Lieu- 
tenant. 

Third Company. — Cornelius T. Jausen, Captain ; N. Vander Ilejden, First Lieu- 
tenant; James Dubois, Second Lieutenant ; Samuel Englisli, Ensign. 

Fourth Company. — Abraham Swart woudt, Captain; Philip Conine, First Lieuten- 
ant; Q. R. Q. Livingston, Second Lieutenant; Samuel Lewis, Ensign. 

Fifth Company. — Aaron Austin, Captain ; John Ball, First Lieutenant ; Gerrit 
Staats, Second Lieutenant. 

Sixth Company. — James Gregg, Captain ; Levi Stockwell, First Lieutenant ; James 
Blake, Second Lieutenant ; George Dennison, Ensign. 

Seecnth Company. — Henry N. Piebout, Captain ; Isaac Bogert, First Lieutenant ; 
Wm. Mead, Second Lieutenant ; Christopher Hutten, Ensign. 

Eighth Company. — John Houston, Captain ; John Welch, First Lieutenant ; Pren- 
tice Bowen, Second Lieutenant. 

Colonel Mellen ; Colonel Allen; Colonel Bleecker ; Colonel John James Davis; 
Colonel Johnson ; Lieutenant Diefendorf ; Lieutenant M'Clenner ; Major Ballam ; 
En.sign Chase ; Ensign Bailey ; Ensign Lewis ; Ensign Magee; Ensign Arnent ; Ger- 
shorn Gilbert (Descendant, Geo. Gilbert, Carthage) ; Jabez Spicer ; Isaac Coven- 
boven ; Ensign Jonathan Dean, Westmoreland ; John Schuyler, Westmoreland ; 
Captain Johauuis Roof; (Father of Colonel John Roof, at Oriskany). 

The regiments as stated in the text were raised by districts. Tryon county had 
four. The Mohawk district lay lowest down the river. Next west, and to the south 
of the river, was the Caiiajoharie district, reaching to Little Falls and to Cherry 
Valley. Palatine district lay north of the river, and extended west from the Mohawk 
district to Little Falls. The district of German Flats and Kingsland included all the 
territory west of Little Falls on both sides of the river. 

Colonel Cox's regiment had been ordered to Ticonderoga in the preceding winter, 
as the manuscript narrative of Frederick Sammous states. This narrative is now in 
the possession of Colonel Simeon Sammons, of Fonda, who has kindly permitted the 
writer to peruse it. 



THE HERKBIER MO^^UMEISTT. 

Letter of Dit. Henry A. Holes, State Lnsn^utiAN, on tue Subject. 

State Library, Albany, June 18, 1879. 
Hon. Horatio Setmocti : 

Dear Sir : In perusing the accounts of the proceedings of the Oriskany centen- 
nial celebration of 1877, 1 have found no allusion to the action of the State just half 
a century before, in regard to erecting a monument to General Herkimer. Recalling 
the fervor with which you have appealed in behalf of such a monument, I felt sure 
that you would be gratified to be reminded that your enthusiasm had been sustained 
by no less an example than that of so eminent a predecessor in ofEce as Governor 
DeWitt Clinton. 

Governor Clinton, in his annual message in 1827 to the Legislature, the semi-cen- 
tennial year of the battle of Oriskany, recalls to the minds of the members that the 
year was " the 50th anniversary of our national existence," and after speaking of 
"our debt to the surviving worthies of the revolution," he adds: 

" It is suitable to the occasion to solicit your attention to the following resolve of 
Congress, passed on the 4th of October, 1777 : 



1 48 Centennial Celebrations. 

' Resolved, That the governor and council of New York be desired to erect a mon- 
ument, at continental expense, of the value of five hundred dollars, to the memory 
of the late Brigadier Herkimer, who commanded the militia of Tryon county in the 
State of New York, and was killed fighting gallantly in defense of the liberty of 
these States.' 

" At the most critical period of the Revolutionary war, when the State was nearly 
surrounded with hostile forces, and when destroying armies were penetrating it in 
various directions, the gallant Herkimer fell on the field of battle, at the head of his 
patriotic neighbors. This exhibition of heroic virtue attracted the distinguished 
notice of Congress, but the situation of the times presented obstacles to an immediate 
compliance with their resolve. As there can be no reason for further delay, I hope 
that this subject will occupy your early attention." 

This recommendation was speedily referred to a select committee of five. A bill 
was reported, discussed in committee of the whole, and there the title of the bill 
was changed from " An act of honor to the memory of General Herkimer," to that 
of " An act to provide for the erection of a monument in honor of General Nicholas 
Herkimer." It was finally engrossed, read a third time, and passed the same day, 
April 16, and sent to the Senate for concurrence. On the same day it was read in 
the Senate and ordered to a second reading. Both bodies adjourned the next day, 
April 17, and the bill failed to become a law.* 

Governor Clinton, faithful to his purpose, in his next and last annual message, in 
1838, repeats his recommendation regarding the monument in the following lan- 
guage : 

" At the last meeting of the Legislature, I recommended a monumental erection 
in honor of General Herkimer, and to which I beg leave to refer you. If you con- 
cur with me in the propriety and policy of attending to this notice of an eminent 
patriot of the Revolution, permit me to advocate with it. General Woodhull, another 
distinguished hero who fell, one of the first victims of the Revolutionary war, in 
defense of his country, on Long Island, in August, 1776." 

On the next day this portion of the messsage was referred to a select committee. 
This committee, by its chairman, Abijah Mann, jr., reported at length, on March 38. 
This report, after narrating the death of Woodhull on Long Island, recounts the 
bravery of General Herkimer and his success in defeating the designs of the enemy 
at Oriskany, and concludes thus : '' In consideration of the distinguished services ren- 
dered to this State by Generals Herkimer and Woodhull during the American Revo- 
lution, the committee, in pursuance of the recommendation of his excellency the 
late governor, respectfully ask leave to introduce a bill to provide for the erection of 
suitable monuments to their memories, as a perpetual testimony of the estimation of 
those services by the people of this State. Ordered, that leave be given to bring in such 
a bill." It was ordered, and immediately brought in, read for the first time, read 
by unanimous consent immediately for the second time, and committpd to a committee 
of the whole house. On the 5th of April, this bill with a dozen others was reported 
by a committee as one of " such public character as ought to be acted upon at the 
present session." The Assembly adjourned nearly a month later, but no farther 
action on the subject is recorded in its journal, or in that of the Senate for the same 
year.f 

In the six sections of the bill it was provided as follows : 1. Erection of monu- 
ments at or near the places of interment. 3. Names the three commissioners to erect 
the monument in the town of Danube. 3. Empowers them to determine the form, 
size and inscription of the monuments. 4. A sum (left blank) declared to be appro- 



«N. T. Assam. Journal, 1827, pp. 42, 45, 1036, 1043, 1141, 1142. Senate Journal, 1827, p. 620. 
t Assembly Journal, 1828, pp. 20, 23,908, 910. 



Appendix — The Herkimer Monument. 149 

priated for the monument. 5. Names commissioners of Suffolk county to erect mon- 
ument tliere. G. Commissioners for both monuments may procure the marble from 
Sing Sing.* 

The subject of an appropriation for either of these monuments was not resumed 
in the following year, 1829. It will be remarked that Governor Clinton's recom- 
mendation of these monuments was one of his latest official acts, and that before the 
presentation of the report of the committee he was in his grave. 

I am, dear sir, respectfully your most obedient .servant, 

HENRY A. HOMES, Ulate Librarian. 

LETTER FROM JOHN HANCOCK. 

York Town, Penn., Oct. 5, 1777. 
Gextlejien : I have the honor to transmit to you the enclosed resolves of Con- 
gress, from which you will perceive it is their desire that a monument should be 
erected to the memory of the late Brigadier General Harkemer, and that they request 
you will take proper measures for carrying the resolve into execution. They have 
for this purpose voted five hundred dollars. 

Every mark of distinction shown to the memory of such illustrious men as offer 
up their lives for the liberty and happiness of the country, reflects real honor on 
those who pay the grateful tribute ; and by holding up to others the prospects of 
fame and immortality, will animate them to tread in the same path. 
I have the honor to be, gentlemen, 

Your most obedient and verj' humble servant, 

JOHN HANCOCK, President. 
Address : " His Excellency G. Clinton, Esq., Governor and the Honorable Council 
of the State of New York." 

» Legislative Documents, folio of M^. 



gcnxtxs ^exQlxts. 



BEMUS HEIGHTS. 



Proceedings of the Celebration of 
September 19th. 



At Bemns* Heights on the 19th of September, 1877, the centennial 
celebration of the anniversary of the battle at that point took place. 
For this celebration extensive preparations were made, and the result 
was a sjDlendid commemoration of the • great event. Neighboring 
towns and counties joined in the patriotic effort. 

Hon. George W. Neilson, of Stillwater, was Chairman of the 
Committee of Arrangements. 

Gen. W. B. French, of Saratoga Springs, Chief Marshal, had issued 
the following order of the day : 

One hundred guns will be fired at sunrise, on the old battle-field, by Battery B, 
Tenth Brigade, Captain A. II. Gueen. 

The procession will be formed on the square at Bemus Heights Hotel, near the 
river, at 9 a. m., and march to the battle-field, about half a mile distant, iu the 

following order : 

Platoon op Police. 

General W. B. French, Chief Marshal; assistants to Chief Marshal, Colonel 
Hiram Rodgeks, Saratoga Springs; Ca,ptain I. S. Scott, Troy; Captain B. P. 
JtlDSON, Saratoga Springs ; Lieutenant Vandemark, Stillwater ; Colonel George 
T. STEENBtmoH, Troy; J. Willard Lester, Saratoga Springs; Cuarles L. 
Pond, Saratoga Springs. 

Major-General .1. B. Carr and staff. 

Brigadier-General Alonzo Alden and staff. 

First Division. 

Doring's band, of Troy. 

Tenth Brigade, Third Division, N. Y. S. N. G., in the following order: 

Line. Separate Conij)any. Captain. 

1st Third. - - - - P. R. Cuadwick 

2d .... Sixth. - - - - J. W. Cusack 

3d Fourth. - - - - J. Eoolp 

* For authority for the spellliiB of Bemus, seo Note 1 of appendix, at end of Bemus Heights pro- 
ceedings. 



154 Centennial Celebrations. 

Line. Separate Company. Captain. 

4th - - . . Seventh. - - - - J. H. Patten 

5tli First. - - - - F. S. Att^tsli, 

6th ... - Fifth. - - - - F. Gleesettle 

7th ----- Second. - - - - G. T. Hall 

Battery B, Tenth Brigade, Captain A. H. Gbebn, Troy, IT. Y. 

His Excellency, Lucius Robinson, Governor and Commander in Chief and staff. 

Brigadier-General J. S. Dickerman, Ninth Brigade, and staff. 

President of the day, Hon. George G. Scott, of Ballston Spa, N. Y. 

Orator of the day, Hon . Martin I . Townsend, of Troy, N. Y. 

Poet of the day. Prof. Robert Lowell, Union College, K. Y. 

Address by Lieutenant-Governor "William Dorsheimek. 

Collation. 

Review of the Tenth Brigade by His Excellency, Governor Lucius Robinson. 

Manceuvering of Gen. Alden's Brigade in evolution of the line, illustrating the 
engagement on the same ground between the armies of Generals Gates and Bur- 
goyne one hundred years ago, in which evolution the artillery, cavalry and in- 
fantry present at the celebration will be engaged, thus affording the people assem- 
bled an ojiportunity to form some idea of the battle that won for them their inde- 
pendence, and at the same time giving them " a smell of gunpowder." 

By order of the Committee of Arrangements. 

W. B. FRENCH, Marshal 

The following liad also been issued : 

To the Soldwrs and Sailm's of the war of 1861 : 

Veterans :— The one hundredth anniversary of the battle ot Bemus Heights will be celebrated on 
the 19th day of September, on tlie old battle field in Stillwater. You should not fail to take part 
in the interesting exercises there to take place. 

That batle was decisive of the American Revolution, and may be said to have achieved the inde- 
pendence which your valor and patriotism have maintained, and secured to yourselves and your 
posterity. 

You are therefore earnestly invited to be present on that occasion. 

Assemble without uniforms in citizens dress at the Bemus Heights Hotel near the battle ground, 
at 9 A. M., on the 19th, and report your name, company, regiment, brigade, division and corps, to 
Captain Frank Thomas, who will give the designation badge and assign you a place of honor in the 
procession, where the electric touch of the elbow will again inspire you as of yore it did the patri- 
ots of 1777. 

By order of the Committee. W. B. FRENCH, 

Dated Sept. 11, 1877. • Marshal of the Day. 

The centennial celebration of the battle of Beinns Heights could not 
have fallen on a lovelier day. It Avas one of those beautiful autumn 
days which are so well known in northern New York. The occasion 
was improved by the people of the surrounding country, who ilocked 
to the grounds in all sorts of conveyances, on foot and on horseback, 
and even on canal boats. Tlie programme of the celebration was suc- 
cessfully carried out, the affair ending iu a fierce sham battle between 
an imaginary British foe concealed in a clump of woods, and General 
Alden's Brigade. Battery B was on both sides and did some pretty 
sharp firing. The troops were manoeuvered by Generals Carr and 



Bkmus Heights. 155 

Alden, the former suggesting the movements on both sides, and Gen- 
eral Alden carrying them ont, handling the troops with ease and 
swiftness. 

The people began to come in before daylight, and eontinned to 
ari-ive in crowds nntil the sun indicated high noon. Comparatively 
few came from the cities. It was the country people's holiday, and 
they observed it faitht'nlly. The road from Mechanicville * to the 
ground was sprinkled, and was in first class condition early in the 
morning. Before eight o'clock the dust was nearly a foot deep. This 
statement may give a faint idea of the number of vehicles which 
passed on it. Saratoga county turned out almost en masse. The great- 
est interest was taken in the sunrise salute to be fired by Battery B. 
After the sahite the final preparations for the celebration were pushed 
with vigor. 

One of the most interesting places in the vicinity of the celebration 
grounds was the old Neilson House. This venerable structm-e was 
decorated with flags, and turned into a refreshment saloon. The chief 
article on the bill of fare was pumpkin pie, baked in the room where 
General Poor had his head-quarters, and where the wounded British 
General Ackland was joined by his wife the day after the second bat- 
tle. At this house was exhibited a large collection of battle-field 
relics. Twelve pound cannon balls, rifle bullets covered with the rust 
of a century, were wonderingly inspected by the ci'owd who entered 
the ancient building. There were also a number of Indian weapons 
and tools, such as stone hatchets, flint arrow heads and pestles. 

The Troy companies reached the Bemus Heights Hotel at about ten 
o'clock, where they were joined by the Port Henry, Whitehall and Glens 
Falls companies. At length all the arrangements for the grand proces- 
sion were completed. At about eleven the order to march was given. 

The following was the arrangement : 

First Division. 

Polico. 

Grand ]\I;ir.shal W. B. FiucNcn, of Saratoga. 

Aids to the Grand llnrslial. 

Major-General J. B. C.4ur and Staff. 

* For authority for this spellinpr of tlie name, see Note 2 of appendix at eud of Dcmus Heiglits 
proceedings. 

20 



156 Centennial Celebrations. 

Brigadier Alden and Staff. 

Doring's Band. 

Chadwick Guards of Cohoes, Capt. P. H. Ch.\dwick commanding. 

Troy Citizens' Corps, Captain J. W. Cusack commanding. 

Troy Tibbits' Corps, Captain J. Egolf commanding. 

Troy Tibbits' Cadets, Captain J. H. Patten commanding. 

Sherman Guards of Port Henry, Captain F. G. Atwell commanding. 

Hughes' Light Guard of Soutli Glens Falls, Captain F. Gleesettle commanding. 

Burleigh Corps of "Whitehall, Captain G. T. Hall commanding. 

Battery B of Troy, Captain A. H. Geeen commanding. 

Generals Hughes and Tract, and Colonel Lodewick of the Governor's Staff. 

Bi'igadier-General Dickerman of Albany and Staff. 

Hon. George G. Scott, President of the Day. 

Orators, Poet and Clergy. 

Second Division. 
Colonel D. J. Caw, Assistant MarshaL 

Marshal's Aids. 

Seventj'-seventh Regiment of Saratoga. 

Saratoga Veterans carrying the old Bemus Heights regimental flag, commanded by 

Frank H. Thomas. 

Saratoga Continentals, Mounted. 

Citizens of Saratoga. 

Third Division. 

Captain B. F. Judson, Assistant Marshal, commanding. 

Marshal's Aids. 

Holding's Band of Ballston. 

Eagle Engine Company of Ballston. 

Hovey Fire Company of Ballston. 

Ballston Veterans. 

Citizens of Ballston. 

Schuylerville Band. 

Schuylerville Fire Company. 

Mounted Yeomanry. 

Schuylerville Citizens. 

The procession was very imposing. The Tenth Brigade was the 
center of public admiration and the theme of public praise. The 
Saratoga Continentals were hastily organized, but made a iine appear- 
ance. 

The procession moved over historic ground and by noted land marks. 
Flags and bunting were displayed from every building in the hamlet 
of Bemus Heights. North of the hotel the site of General Gates' 
head-quarters was visible. The soldier boys could see, over the river, 
Willard's Mountain from the summit of which in early September, 
1777, "Willard, the scout, -watched the movements within the British 



Bejius HeictUts. 157 

camp, coininunieating his discoveries by signal or messenger to Gen- 
eral Gates. Near the celebration groniid a placard indicated that there 
stood on the spot one hundred years ago a barn which was used fur 
hospital purposes. Passing up a not too steep acclivity, the procession 
entered the twenty-two acre field in which tlie exercises were held. 
The various bodies marched around the grand stand, which was erected 
upon the site of one of the redoubts, and also passed over that portion 
of the groiand in which the Ameiican and Bi'itish dead of the battle 
were interred. The ground was indicated by a small sign board. 
There is not and has not been for many years a trace of the graves. 
The soldiers killed in the battle of one hundred years ago have no 
memorial or monument to this day. After the procession had been 
dispersed, the people gathered about the grand stand. The field was 
a fine place for a crowd. Although thirty thousand people stood there, 
there was no crowding. Among the conspicuous persons there were 
Lieutenant-Governor Doesueimer, General Hughes, of the Governor's 
staff, lions. Geo. G. Scott, Geokge West, John M. Feancis, M^uitin 
I. ToAVNSEND, G. EoBEKTsox, James S. Smaet, Henby G. Bueleigh, 
Charity Commissioner Beennan of New York, T. B. Caeeoll, C. S. 
Lestee, Geoege W. Chapman, Geoege "W. Neilson, Edwaed 
Edw.vkds, and Judges Ingalls, Yates and Cbane. Besides these 
gentlemen, Generals Caee, Alden and Dickeeman with their staffs, 
and the General Committee occupied seats on the stand. Shortly after 
noon the vast multitude was called to order and Doring's band opened 
the exercises with music. Kev. Dr. Petee Steykee, of Saratoga, 
offered prayer. 



OPENING ADDEESS BY HON. GEOEGE D. SCOTT, 

PEESroENT. 

Fellow Citizens: — Tho important military event which occurred here a century 
ago has been indilTerently designated as the battle of Bemus Heights, the battle 
of Stillwater, and the battle of Saratoga ; and some confusion and misunderstand- 
ing have arisen in consequence. The higli ground rising from the west shore of 
the Hudson, just below us, derived its name from .Tohn Bemus, who kept a tavern 
at the narrow pass, where the cluiin of hills approached nearest to the river. The 
nearest cluster of dwellings was the hamlet called Stillwater, now Stillwater vil- 
lage, noted for a time as the head-quarters of General Schuyler. Twelve miles up 



158 Centennial Celebuations. 

the river from Stillwater was the old settlement of Saratoga, distiuguishcd as the 
summer residence of Schiiyler, and the place where Burgoyne surrendered. The 
ground, upon which both the lighting and the surrender took place, was within 
the district of Saratoga, then one of the political divisions of Albany county. It 
embraced about one-third of what has since become Sai'atoga county, extending 
from the Borough (now Mechanicville) on the south, to Wing's (now Glen's) Falls 
on the north, and far enough to the west, to include the northern-most mineral 
springs, to which it furnished a name. It also comprehended that portion of the 
Saratoga patent which lies on the east side of the river. The battle-ground was 
included in Stillwater, when it was subsequently incorporated as a town. Each of 
the names, to which I have referred, was, therefore, appropriate to this renowned 
battle-field of the Revolution. 

A celebi'ated modern English liistorian, speaking of the annual commemor- 
ation, down to this day, of an event which occurred nearly two centuries ago, 
observes that a people which take no jiride in the noble achievements of theu' 
ancestors, will never achieve any thing worthy to be remembered with pride by 
their descendants. The centennial celebrations that have been observed in this 
country within the last three years indicate that this remark can have no applica- 
tion to us. Commencing -^^■ith Lexington and Concord, followed by Bunker Hill, 
the Declaration of Independence, Trenton and Princeton, we are now passing 
through the centennials of 1777, distinguished as the successive acts in the great 
drama of Burgoyne's campaign. 

The rebellious colonies had become a source of great annoyance to the mother 
coimtry. Her patience was at last exhausted, and early in 1777, preparations 
were made for a campaign upon a scale sufficiently grand and extensive, it was be- 
lieved, to coerce them into submission and silence. I shall not occupy your time 
in attempting to mark out its plan or to trace its progress to its inglorious termi- 
nation, nor shall I attempt a sketch of the closely contested and sanguinary conflict 
which took place upon this ground on the 19th of September, or the ^dctory won 
here by the American forces on the 7th of October, both of which may be regarded 
substantially as one battle — the battle which we are now assembled to commemorate. 

It is sufficient for my purpose to say that upon this amphitheater, where this 
scene of rural beauty and quietude is spread before us, then mostly covered with 
the primeval forest, the great and decisive contest of the Revolution took place. 
It was followed by the capitulation of the British forces at Saratoga on the 17th 
of October, which, owing to the punctiliousness of Burgoyne and the com-tesy of 
Gates, was termed " the convention of Saratoga." 

It is difficult to realize the far reaching consequences of this world-renowned 
battle. It has been said with much force, that without it, Bunker Hill would 
have been insignificant and Yorktown impossible. It secured tons the alliance 
and aid of France ; it inspired us with confidence in ourselves ; and foreshadowed 
the ultunate, if not early, accomplishment of American independence, which, 
fifteen months previous, had T)ecu boldly, but in the apprehensions of many, pre- 
maturely and rashly, promulgated. It is ranked by historians among the few 
battles in the history of the world, that have changed the course of empires and 
shaped the destinies of our race. It has resulted in this great confederated repub- 
lic, which in spite of the defects inherent in that form of government and of the 
severe trials, through which, during its marvellous growth and territorial expan- 
sion, it has passed, is, for the highest purposes for which governments are institu- 
ted, superior to any other, ancient or modern. 



BiSMus IIkiguts. 159 

This is classic ground. It will bo to our country what the plain of ilarathon was 
to Greece. Unlike that memorable battle-field, however, upon which at different 
points, monuments of victory were raised, no cohuun rises from tliis, to perpetuate 
the memory of this great event, to honor the valor that achieved it, and to distin- 
guish the place of its occurrence. But the scene whicli surrounds us — these fields, 
marked by the redoubts and intrenchments of the confronting armies — the his- 
toric river below — and yonder mountain overlooking the whole, from whoso 
summit, Willard the American scout, with spy-glass in hand, watched the move- 
ments of Burgoyne and reported by signals to Gates — all these will' constitute 
one vast and imperishable monument, sacred to the memory of those heroes and 
patriots who fought and conquered here one hundred years ago. 



ADDEESS OF HON. MxiETIN I. TOWNSEND. 

Fellow Citizens — We stand to-day upon one of the most illustrious battle- 
fields of the American Revolution. A hundred years ago there beat upon these 
fields thousands of hearts as warm and generous as ever tlirobbed in patriot 
bosoms. They were here to suffer and die, if need should be, in the cause of 
liberty and in the cause of their infant country. They were little inured to the 
work of iron war. They were farmers, fresh from their harvest fields ; merchants, 
mechanics and professional men from their offices and worksliops. Arrayed 
against them were the experienced veterans of Great Britain, led by British noble- 
men whose whole lives had been devoted to all the arts of modern warfare. 
Against them also stood the veteran oiBcers and soldiers of two German king- 
doms — those of Brunswick and those of Hesse. But this was not all. Our 
officers and soldiers knew that they were contending with the first military power 
in the world. From 1700 to 1777 the course of British wars had been but a series 
of triumphs for the British nation. No people had successfully withstood them, 
and no people understood this better than the New England, New York and New- 
Jersey boys gathered here on that day. For they had fought side by side with 
the British in the great struggle which had ended in 17.59 by consecrating the 
North American continent to the occupation for all time of English speaking 
people. They well knew, too, that England was the richest as "vvell as the most 
powerful nation on earth. They knew that she had been enriched by the system 
of commerce and manufactures which .she had cherished from the days of Crom- 
well as the apple of her eye. They knew that England was enriched with the 
spoils of India and the gems and spices of the isles of every sea. Above all, they 
knew that England's hosts were furnished with the full panoply of war, while the 
patriot ranks were destitute of all needful supplies except strong and willing 
hands and patriotic hearts. Yet their purposes never for a moment wavered, and, 
had il been required, every drop of their blood would have flowed as free as 
water for the sacred cause in which they were engaged. In the winter of 177<"i-7 
the British Government had concocted a grand scheme for their subjugation. It 
is a curious coincidence that the enemies of human liberty from 1855 to 18C5 
replanned and threatened again and again to execute this same scheme. It was 
to separate by a strong hand the Hudson Valley and the New England States from 
the rest of the Union. Neither the English Government then or any other enemy 
of liberty since that day has liked the material sought to be severed from the 



160 Centennial Celebkations. 

Union. In the New England States were founfl the descendants of the God-fear- 
ing Puritans and the associates of Cromwell's iron side regiments. In the Hudson 
Valley were fouud the descendants of the Covenanters of Scotland and the 
descendants of those brave Hollanders who so long withstood the whole power of 
Philip II of Spain and won from the tyrants and for freedom, as their fathers 
had won from the sea, the garden land of the low countries. Those were trouble- 
some men for tyrants to deal with, and if they could be separated from the rest 
of the revolted States the happiest results for the English power were anticipated. 

Sir Henry Clinton, in possession of the commercial capital of the State of New 
York, was to advance northward — by the valley of the Hudson, while Sir John 
Burgoyne, with an army more powerful than had ever been seen in the North, 
furnished with every implement of war then known, was to proceed by Lake 
Champlain and the Hudson and join Sir Henry Clinton at Albany. To distract 
the American forces. Col. St. Leger was to advance by the way of Oswego to Port 
Stanwix, where Rome now stands, and after reducing that fort proceed by the 
valley of the Mohawk to the same point of union. 

The spring of 1777 opened. Sir .John Burgoyne at the head of the northern 
army proposed to himself a sort of dress-parade march along the Champlain and 
the Hudson, to enter Albany with the same sort of triumph in which the victori- 
ous Roman consul, returning from his province, entered the eternal city. In the 
spring and early summer his fondest hopes seemed likely to be realized. The 
brave and tireless Schuyler, to save his shred of an army from annihilation, wisely 
retreated to Van Schaick's island below Waterford, and threw up intrenchments 
there, to prevent, if possible, the advance on Albany, and a jiossible advance of 
St. Leger along the valley of the Mohawk. But before September the sons of 
New York, New England and New .Jersey had rallied to the aid of Schuyler, and 
Stark had won over Baum the glorious victory of Bennington. 

The generalship of Schuyler had forced the retreat of St. Leger from Fort 
Stanwix, and the Mohawk was freed from the presence of an enemy. The Ameri- 
can Government had placed Horatio Gates in command of the northern armj', to 
reap the fields which Schuyler had sown and cultivated, and it is fortunate that, 
whatever criticisms may have been made upon his appointment and his general- 
ship, he did the work set for him most successfully. The purpose of Burgoyne 
on the 19th of September was to advance to Albany. The purpose of Gates and 
the American army was to block his way. Upon the morning of the 19th of Sep- 
tember the two armies stood face to face behind their intrenchments, upon the 
hills sloping down to the west bank of the Hudson, the British left wing and the 
American right wing substantially resting upon the river. The British left, hav- 
ing their more efCective cannon and the immense army supplies in charge, was 
under the command of Gens. Philips and liicdesel, while the British right was com- 
manded by Gen. Fraser and Col. Breymann, under the eye of Gen. Burgoyne, the 
commander-in-chief. The right of the American army was commanded by Gen. 
Gates in person, while the left was in charge of the hitherto unequaled American 
General, Benedict Arnold. So near together were the two armies, that many a 
word of command given in the British lines was distinctly heard by the American 
pickets. In the bright rays of that beautiful morning sun the gleam of bayonets 
and sabres told to the watchful American army that the enemy w:is massing troops 
upon his right with a view to swoop down upon and ovenvhelm the American 
left. As might well be supposed, Arnold became furious, and again and again he 
sought ])erinission from the commander-in-chief to lead forward his troops and 



Bkmus Heights. 161 

attack the British right, and jiractice upon them the same manoeuvre by which 
Burgoyne sought to overwhchn liini. In justice to Gates it should be remem- 
bered tluit he liud actually in hand upon the tield but about twenty-live hundred 
men, mostly of raw and untrained militia. As they stood they were guarded by 
intrenclunents. On tlie British side more than 3,000 men were on the tield, and 
every man a trained veteran. Gates could bide his time without injury to the 
cause he served, whereas Burgoyne must advance his left wing without delay or 
be undone. Yielding, however, to Arnold's persuasions, Gates at about 12 o'clock 
gave his consent that Arnold should move through the thick forests and attack 
the enemy's right. As early as 10 o'clock Philips and Riedesel had marched out 
of their intrenchments and had commenced a slow and methodical advance upon 
the patriot left. But when Arnold and the gallant Gen. Morgan and Major Dear- 
born, soon after 13 o'clock, threw themselves, as if in madness, upon the British, 
tliey not only repulsed the British right wing but checked the British advance 
idong the whole line, and Philips and Riedisel never reached the neigld)Orhood 
of the American intrenchments. During the whole afternoon and until long after 
the shades of night liad set in, Arnold's forces renewed their attacks upon the 
British riglit. Again and again the British and German veterans yielded before 
the impetuosity of American yeomen, and never during that most eventful day 
were the British hosts under the leadership of Burgoyne and Breyman and Fraser 
allowed to advance one-third of the di.stance intervening between the American 
and British lines. Time will not allow me to enact the historian of this glorious 
battle. I cannot be allowed even to name hundreds of brave men whose deeds on 
that day are known to history. Sufficient to say, that no act was done ou that 
field which would not, if detailed, redound to the glory of the American name. 
Burgoyne proposed in the morning to march to Albany. He had fought the 
bloody battle and found himself at night within his morning intrenchment.s, 
mourning over the fact that every si.xth man who had gone into battle that day 
under his command was dead or wounded, or a prisoner within tlie American lines. 

From the close of September Ifl, Burgoyne's fate was inevitable. The loyal 
American hearts had been cheered by the defeat and capture of Bauni at Benning- 
ton and by the retreat of St. Leger from Fort Stanwix, and the defeat of Burgoyne 
at Benius Heights satisfied even the doubting tliat final success in thfe war with Bri- 
tain was not only possible but probable ; and the loyal hosts who finally gathered 
upon the north and south and east and west of Burgoyne, before his final surrender 
on the l.'itli of October, might successfully have encountered an army five times 
larger than that which he commanded. I am not unmindful of the glorious 
achievements of the American troops between September li) and October 1.5, but 
it will be the duty of others on a day already set, in the near future, to descant 
upon these topics. I content myself with remarking that the battle of Bemus 
Heights said to the British power what Omnipotence said to the Ocean : "Hither 
shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thj' proud waves be stayed." 

The hero of Bemus Heiglits, if one may venture to confer that name on any one 
man, where all did their duty so nobly, was Benedict Arnold. The hero of the 
battle of October 17, still more distinctly, was Benedict Arnold. Had he died on 
the day of Burgoyne's surrender, his would have been like that of the Greek hero, 
Marco Bozzaris, " one of the few, immortal names that were not born to die." His 
tomb would have been on ■ of tlie shrines almut which patriots would have loved 
to cluster for all time. But, oh, what a change came! What a sliadow now sur- 
rounds that once honored name. The civilized world has branded him as a traitor. 
21 



162 Centennial Celebkations. 

He sold his heart — his country — aye, his sacred honor, for British gold. It 
has been said that Arnold became mad with a desire to lead in tlie social world at 
Philadelphia, and thus contracted debts which oppressed him. It was doubtless 
true that Arnold's debts oppressed him. But no man ever sold his country to pay 
his debts. Arnold fell because he became infatuated at Philadelphia with a tory 
woman — a member of a fashionable tory family. His leisure hours were among the 
tories, and Arnold fell as thousands of others have fallen through all ages from 
Adam's day until now. Observation through life somewhat protracted has taught 
me that I can never be sure of any man's political opinions until I know something 
of the opinions and sympathies of his wife. I know it is said that Miss Shippen 
was a most lovely and excellent lady, and that she suffered great grief when 
Arnold's treason was exposed. This was doubtless true. So it was doubtless true 
that our mother Eve was a lovely and excellent lady, and doubtless suffered much 
when she found out what mischief she had done b}' tempting her infatuated hus- 
band. But it is none the less true that Adam's yielding to her suggestions has 
done a vast amount of mischief in this lower world. I can but admire the plan of 
the monument of Schuylerville. It is proposed to prepare four niches in the monu- 
ment suitable to contain four statues of the four heroes of this glorious campaign, 
and place in the niches the statues of Schuyler, Gates and Morgan, and leave the 
fourth empty, engraving upon the lower side of the niche the name of that man who, 
but for his crime, would have led them all in the admiration of mankind. And 
here let me say that I never fail to rejoice when I see my fellow-citizens building 
monuments and showering honors upon the brave who have nobly suffered for their 
country. The story of the honors which our country bestowed upon the heroes of 
the Revolution is eagerly read by our boys long before they arrive at manhood. 
The hope to earn the gratitude of his country nerved the arm and cheered the 
heart of many a noble boy while suffering the hardships of the camp and prison 
in om' late unholy rebellion ; and if you would make your country safe against the 
outbreak of future rebellions, never fail, by monuments and the bestowal of rewards 
upon our brave and faithful sons, to show our regard for loyal meu over those who 
sought to destroy their country. 

The valleys of the Hudson and Champlain were for centuries the scene of war 
and bloodshed before the white man settled within this realm. The fierce Algon- 
quins and Iroquois pursued each other along this route, from the valley of the 
Mohawk to the St. Lawrence, and inflicted upon each other all the barbarities 
which fiends could invent. By and by came Samuel de Champlain and his asso- 
ciates, and from that day French civilization joined with savage barbarities for 
years and years in deluging these fair valleys in blood ; and when in 1759 the French 
power was obliterated upon this continent. Great Britain led the untamed savage 
to do his work of cruelty and blood along these same beautiful slopes and 
hilltops. 

But for the last hundred years the sound of the war-whoop has ceased, and the 
arts of peace have been most successfully cultivated among us. Could good Isaiah 
be allowed to look in upon the scene that greets the traveler on the fields of Bemus 
Heights, he would believe that the thousand years of peace and joy which he so 
beautifully foretold have at last dawned among men. 

We have had still a second war with England. In our late struggle for national 
existence England most cruelly gave aid and comfort to our enemies. But the 
treaty of Washington and the payment by England of the award under it, have 
removed all causes of contention between the British nation and ours. If we are 



Bkmus Heights. 1G3 

to be still rivals, may we not liope that it shall be in arts of agriculture, commerce 
and manufactures, and that the day shall come when these vallc3's so deluged in 
blood by the Algonquin, Ihe Iniijuois, the French and the English shall become 
vastly more than now the great thoroughfare between people who shall be fast 
friends at least, and perhaps gathered under the j)rotccting folds of the same glo- 
rious national flag ? 



SPEECH OF LIE UTEN ANT-GO VERNOE DORSTIEIMER. 

My Fellow Citizens — You have assembled to celebrate one of the victories 
which brought about the surrender of Burgoyne, the negotiation of the French 
Alliance, and the establishment of American Independence. At Oriskany, a few 
weeks ago, the first of those victories was commemorated by a vast multitude, and 
with imposing ceremonies. Soon after, with like enthusiasm, the battle of Ben- 
nington was celebrated. And now you have gathered on the field where the 
decisive action of the campaign was fought. Oriskany had been a severe blow to 
the plans of the British conunander ; Bennington was the first defeat suffered by 
his own troops ; but those events did not decide the fate of his expedition. Here, 
on these slopes, the decision was made — here it was determined that the Ameri- 
can colonies should be free and independent States. We are at a turning point of 
our history, and from here, like one who stands at the bend of a river, we gaze 
through long ^'istas, on the one hand, upon the annals of the colonies — on the 
other, \ipon the eventful career and dazzling ])rogress of the United States. 

We here recall the events which tended to the formation of American character 
and nationality ; the settlements at Albany and New York, and the introduction of 
the liberal polity of the Dutch; the landing at Jamestown and Plymouth; the 
Huguenot fljing from the broken oath of Louis, and the Quaker escaping from 
the profligacy of Charles ; the long struggle with savage nature and more savage 
men ; and that finally the British army triumiihant over Holland and then over 
France, spread the English speech through all the colonies, and wove the first and 
firmest bond of Union. Then came the Revolution. The fires of foreign oppres- 
sion burn away all diflferenccs of tradition, race and creed. Moved by one pur- 
pose, the children of many races arise, and stand before the world one iieo]ile. We 
recall the plans that Franklin laid, and the agitations that Samuel Adams set 
afoot. We hear the eloquence of Henry and Otis. AVc see Paul Revere riding 
through the night; the farmers gather in the graveyard at Lexington, and " there 
among the graves of their kindred they kneelloyal subjects of the British king; 
the baptism of fire is laid upon their brows and they arise American freemen." The 
low brea.stwork rises uptm Bunker Hill and once and again holds back the tide of 
war. Washington takes command, Boston is liberated, but his defense of New 
York is unavailing. Then follows the crossing of the Delaware amid the ice; and 
the stealthy march upon Trenton. Standing here, we see that all this was but the 
prelude to what was accomplished here. Without that all would have been in 
vain. 

On the other hand, from this point we look through the whole course of our 
country's subsequent career. We see the framing of the Constitution ; we .sec the 
men who have counseled, led and inspired the people, those who have multiplied 



164 Centennial Celebrations. 

its industries, directed its commerce, founded its schools, built its cities, and by 
inventions more strange than Arabian poet ever dreamt of, made the lightning 
our messenger, and the elements our servants. 

We behold the throng of immigration lured hither by the beacon of liberty your 
fathers lighted — the German bringing gifts, the homely virtues of industry and 
thrift; the Irishman weaving into the woof of our national character the warm 
and glowing colors of Irish wit, enthusiasm and valor. Then came the struggle 
between freedom and slavery, the long and dreary war, and at last peace and re- 
union. As we stand here and look upon this eventful scene, we realize that were 
it not for what was done here a hundred years ago — whatever might have hap- 
pened during the century that has passed, whatever institutions might have grown 
among us, whatever characteristics of race and custom might have been produced 
— they must have differed greatly from those which now exist. America and 
Americans would have been here, but neither the America nor the Americans 
which we know. 

It does not come within the scope of my address to discuss the far-reaching 
consequences of this memorable victory. Neither will I dwell upon the details of 
Burgoyne's campaign ; they have been vividly recited by the distinguished gen- 
tleman who has preceded me. I will, however, detain you a few moments to speak 
of the personal fortunes of some of the actors in these events. 

You will remember that to General Philip Schuyler had been given command of 
the forces which were to oppose Burgoyne's march. This gentleman was a native 
of New York, distinguished for wealth and social consequence, and had long been 
a commanding figure in the colony. Destitute of equipment, and with forces infe- 
rior in number and discipline to the enemy, he had been compelled to act on the 
defensive, and had slowly retreated, delaying, so far as he could, the British 
advance, in the hope of receiving greatly needed re-enforcements, and of drawing 
his foe into a position where victory would be certain and complete. 

Just when events began to justify his strategy, against the wish of Washing- 
ton, Schuyler was removed, and the chief command given to General Gates. 
That officer gathered the fruits of Schuyler's wisdom, zeal, and caution. How 
little he deserved them may be known by the fact that during the doubtful battle 
of the 17th of October, he remained in his tent, at a distance from the fray, not 
having the influence over it of the humblest drummer bo3^ At this time Wash- 
ington was in a position of doubt and difficulty. After the occupation of Boston 
the fortune of war had been against him, and his army had been so often defeated 
that a distrust was excited which the success at Trenton did not remove. He had 
sent some of his best troops to re-enforce Gates, and on the 11th of September, at 
Brandywine, he had been again defeated. 

Saratoga gave to General Gates so great a fame, that he became the center of 
an intrigue, which was strongly supported in the army and in Congress, the object 
of which was to displace Washington and put Gates at the head of the army. 
This plan was partly defeated, but was so far successful as to obtain for Gates the 
command of the troops which had been gathered to resist Cornwallis in the south. 
The laurels of Saratoga were withered and scattered by the first blast of southern 
war; and Gates, riding in hot haste, leading the flight from the disastrous field of 
Camden, disappeared from American history. 

Washington's influence and power had never been disturbi'd. The confidence 
of the people in him had not been .shaken, by the intrigues of Conway, nor by 
Gates' short lived renown. So too with Schu_Yl(T. It has bi'cn left for a historian 



Bemus Hp:ights. 165 

of our time and Staff, to fiillj- viudicatc' his military reputation; but the confi- 
dence of the people of New York was never withdrawn from him. He continued 
to be a citizen of influence and distinction long after the man who supplanted him 
had passed out of sight. The Revolution, like Stillwater, was a soldier's battlu. 
The strong common sense of the people did justice to Schuyler and Washington. 

Let us not forget that this victory was won by the united efforts of all the colo- 
nies. Regiments were here from Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jer- 
sey, and New Hampshire. Morgan and his Southern riflemen were here. The 
Polander, Kosciusko, traced the fortifications along the crests of these hills, and 
on the day of battle, not knowing the language which the soldiers spoke, he spoke 
to them by deeds of valor which all could understand. The victory which made 
the United States po.ssible does not belong to us or to New York alone. We who 
celebrate it, who have seen the country divided and the States at war, ^vill have 
our patriotic impulses widened and om- purpose strengthened to preserve the lib- 
erties which were here cstabli.shed, by remembering that all the States fought here 
for freedom and the Union. 

The civil war is over and a happier day fills our skies. The laws are everywhere 
supreme. Every man in the land is now a freeman ; and the tender chords of 
feeling which, more than laws, bind a people together, and wliich but lately were 
silent, again respond to the appeals of kinship and country. And so, too, the 
hard times are passing away. The harvests are crowding your granaries almost to 
bursting. The channels of commerce again are thronged. Industry revives, and 
labor rises from its paralysis. In this hour of patriotic hope, let us dedicate this 
field anew to freedom and to Union. 



POEM BY ROBERT LOWELL. 

Pkelude. 

As while about some restful, wide-.shored bay, 

All hid in fog, landward and seaward lay, 

Came far-heard voices forth, from men imseen, 

Or low of herd, or roll of slow worked oar. 

Heard here and there, throughout that floating screen, 

Made us no longer lonely, as before; 

Nay, as might chance, the eyes, long-straining, wist 

Where .shapes walked, great and dim, \\'ithin the mist. 

So, we may think, with former men, that by 
This life's still shore are to our minds yet nigh. 
But hidden deep in folding mists of Past ; 
Still may the stronger eye, the finer ear. 
Find, through tlie floating clouds about them cast. 
The meri that did their work and left it here. 
The ])ast that lived is but a little far 
Within this self-same life wherein we are. 



166 Centennial Celebeations. 



BtrEGOYiTE's Mauch. 

To the drums' echoing beat, 

And thrilling clarion's cry — 

England's red banner as. a sheet 

Of flame against the sky — 

With the strong tread of soldiers' feet, 

Burgoyne's good host went by, 

The gleaming bayonets flashed pride in every eye. 

A hundred golden summer suns 

Have filled our fields with June, 

Whose morn and noon and twilight runs 

Each to its end too soon. 

Since basking in the wealth of day, 

Saint John's broad fort and village lay. 

While through the streets, and from the fort, 

Company, regiment, brigade. 

Were marched as for a last parade, 

Crowding the sunny port. 

The town all thronged the beach ; 

No work was then, for far or near : 

No work, unless to see and hear; 

And little speech, but cheer on cheer; 

Or, here and there, beyond the common reach, 

Some prayer, some sobbing speech ; 

But shout and martial strain 

Made the banks ring again. 

As the men took ship to sail up Lake Champlain. 

The general had stood awhile 

Within the maple's shade. 

With quickening eye and lofty smile ; 

Since the dread game of war was played 

Were never better soldiers made 

To conquer for the world-conquering Isle ; 

To vrin back, for tlie English Crown, 

Before which, late, the might of France went dowu, 

Fortress and farm and town. 

Along the lakes and the rich Mohawk Vale, 

To the old solid town that stands 

Embosomed in fair lands, 

And rich with many a peaceful sail. 

Fort William — Beaverwyck — the good town Albany; 

While Howe, or Clinton, from the Sea, 

Should set the River coimtry free 

From a base rule by countryman and clown. 

Then would a loyal wall keep wide 



Bejius Heights. 167 

The robcl Irinrls tliat lay on either side, 

Till more ciilin time and wiser thought 

Should bring all mad revolt to naught; 

And the great realm that rounds the world and ever fronts the sun, 

Onee more, from shore to answering shore, 

By land, by sea, one realm should be ; 

Unbroken, as it was of yore, 

Throughout all earth but one. 

Strange, one might thinly, breathing .Tune's happy breath. 

Hearing glad melodies in all the air. 

Seeing the red and gold that brightened everywhere ; 

Strange that all this, so merry and so fair, 

Should deck the trade of death ! 

As well the clouds at sunset heaped. 

All tinged with red and gold. 

The while the nightfall criekc^t cheeped, 

Jlight into sudden storm have leaped. 

And wreck and ruin manifold, 

Witli thunderbolt of fabled Thor, 

As this become death-dealing war ! 

It would b\it be a month's parade ; 

The rebel fort would yield, at call. 

To earth the rebel flag would fall; 

The king would be obeyed. 

To sweep, with summer breeze, the lake, 

In the night wind a bivouac make. 

Beneath the starry arch; 

To scout in underwood and brake. 

Would be a pleasure-march ! 

So to an English eye, our country's cause would fail, 

(The hurried ending of a tale 

Told overnight,) 

When brave Burgoyne set saO. 

Our countrymen that season lay 

As men that wake in night, but fear the day. 

The leaguer-fires of Bimker Hill 

Were yet scarce trodden out; and still 

There were true men, whose steadfast will 

Set all it had at stake; 

Would never bow to might of ill : 

Rather their country's soil would fill 

With clay of heroes' make. 

St. Clair and Schuyler had trod back 

The long road of retreat; 

The foe was hard upon their track. 



168 Centennial Celebrations. 

And, foot by foot — as waters roll — 
So following foot by foot, he stole 
Theii- country from beneath theii feet. 
C^o^v^l Point, Ticonderoga, fell ; 
Fort George, Fort Edward — need we tell 
Stout Warner's gloomy overthrow ? 
Or the great loss at Skencsborough ? 

Let our hearts honor, as they can, 
Schuyler, the generous gentleman. 
His countrymen called back their trust; 
He waited not till they were just ; 
Took lower place, and felt no shame, 
Still gave a heart and hand, the same 
That chose this cause when it began ; 
And, in his honor, give its share 
To the strong patience of St. Clair. 
Our tide of strength was running low ; 
On its swift ebb was borne the foe, 
And, as men speak, God willed it so. 

Not always will the tide run out : 
Not always the strong wind of fate 
Shall drive from off the harbcJr's gate 
Those who, fast anchored, wait and wait, 
TUl their own time shall come about ; 
Yield never to the crime of doubt. 

So everywhere great hearts were true. 

The world looked dark ; here — ■ only here — 

A hand-breadth of the sky was clear ; 

But the world's work was here to do ! 

Manhood in France was in the dust, 

The prey of rank, and greed, and hist; 

And little despots, otherwheres. 

Laid out the trembling world in shares; 

And England — England of the free — 

Set safe by God amidst the sea ; 

To keep the light of liberty — 

Under a foreign rule 

Had learned in that bad school ; 

Forgotten that, ichere law had sway, 

They imist make law who law obey. 

England was reading all her story back ; 

To our true-hearted sires all the world's sky looked black 

Save one clear hand-breadth in the west 

Darkness and clouds held all the rest. 

The time soon comes: men fill our camps; 
On fortress-wall the sentry tramps 
With The New Ping on Hi(ih. 



Bemus Heights. 1C9 



Tli:iL ill the agi's down (liroiigli tiim: 

tjliouUl slielter all weak things but crime: 

And all strong wrongs defy. 

Now gain comes in where came in loss; 

Great names are made, or take new gloss; 

As fearless Herkimer — so wise 

To see beyond the young, rash eyes, 

Where needless, useless danger lies; 

But fatherly and true, 

To bear their rashness through ; 

So Willett won at Schuyler Port, 

And the brave leader Gansevoort; 

Then, with Stark's day at Bennington, 

The first great prize of war was won, 

The conquering of Burgoyne begun. 

There was no choosing in the dark; 

God made the General, John Stark, — 

Our tide swelled toward high-water mark! 

Three months of summer time were past 

Since, with a gallant host. 

Mid beat of drum and trumpet-blast, 

And with more lofty boast, 

Burgoyne his march had fcyward cast; 

Tlu'ough fort and field his easy play 

Would be a conqueror's holiday. — 

To that proud time his thoughts might stray 

Wlien Gates's army barred his further way. 

On Bemus Heights our fathers stood. 

While all the land looked on : 

Could they not make their footing good? 

Then Albany was gone ! 

Then all the hearts that beat for right. 

Would draw sad presage from the fight; 

Then a most heavy blow would smite 

The heart of Washington ! 

When the day opened, fair and still, 

And clarions, with alarum shrill. 

Drew echoes from each other's liill, 

How many a prayer was said ; 

" If man his brother's blood must spill. 

Let not God's word, ' Tlmn xhalt imt kill,^ 

Bring judgment on our head ! 

And let the right stand, come what will. 

Though we go to the dead ! " 

They met the foe — We will not say 
All that was done, of deadly fray ; 
How forward, now, now back they sway, 
22 



170 Centennial Celebkations. 

Till the night settled late. 
But by the first strong stand here made 
Burgoj'ue's long summer march was stayed, 
And many an anxious one took breath, 
Who watched the turn for life or death, 
In the young country's fate. 

Here, once for all, his march was crossed; 

He tried again ; again he lost ; 

And ere the season, growing old, 

Knew summer out of date, 

And hung the woods with red and gold, 

Burgoyne's short story had been told ; 

A brave heart, but his cause was cold : 

God willed our free-born state. 

And so Burgoyne's last march was made : 

Between our lines he led his last parade. 

Apter-Bkeath. 

Now, with still years between, where tlirough we gaze, 
On those dim dead — the strong of earlier days — • 
Now that all strife is still — the great meed gained 
For them that lived, or died, with loyal heart. 
In alien faith, but to great manhood strained 
Unyielding sinews, honor, now ! Our part 
To lay ourselves, as very sod or stone 
Of trench, when called, to keep our land her own. 



ADDEESS OF JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS. 

Mr. Chairman, Citizens op Saratoga Countt, Ladies a]^v> Gentlemen: 

To appear before you on this interesting occasion, commemorative of an import- 
ant event in the annals of the State and country, is to me not only a signal honor 
and a grateful task but a filial duty. Proud to be chosen to recite the incidents 
of the campaign which culminated in the surrender of tlie first British army to 
the infant republic, it is a source of still greater pride to me that I am thus per- 
mitted to link my own name in the chain of history witli that of my grandfather. 
Col. Ebenezer Stevens, of the Continental army, who, on this field, a century ago, 
directed, as Major Commandant of the Artillery of the Northern Department, the 
operations of that arm of the service which in great measure contributed to and 
secured the final success of the American troops. 

The ground on which we stand is memorable. Before the discover}' of the con- 
tinent, this territory, at whose southern angle we are now gatliered, was the bat- 
tle-field of the Indian tribes, whose war trails lay upon its boundaries, and from 
the days of European settlement it has been the debatable ground of the French 
and Dutch, the French and English, and the colonists and English, by turns. Here 



Bemus Heights. 171 

tlic fate of American empire has been repeatedlj' sealed. Not because of its 
matcliless beauty of hill and dale, its mirrored lakes and crj'stal streams, its invig- 
oratiiijj atmosphere and perfect skies, nor yet because of its unmeasured forests 
and fertile fields, was this old territory of Saratoga and Kayaderosseras tlie object 
of rivalry and contention. Its possession was of supreme military importance. 
The Moliawk pours into the Hudson at its southernmost limit ; its borders are 
protected by their waters, while a series of declivities, descending from the moun- 
tain ranges of Luzerne and Kayaderosseras and terminating in groups of isolated 
hills, present an admirable strategic point. The discovery of Lake Champlain in 
1009, by the brave Frenchman whose name it bears, and the sailing up the Hud- 
son by Henry Hudson, the same year, gave rise to a contest for its possession 
between the Canadian and New York colonists which lasted for more than a cen- 
tury and a half. 

The French settlements spread rapidly up the St. Lawrence and far into the 
western country, while the Dutch and English slowly and methodically pushed 
their way along the Hudson, and thence by the Mohawk to the great interior 
lakes. From tlie mouth of the Jlohawk, northward, skirting the shores of the 
Hudson and the lakes, lay the highway between the rival settlements and posts. 
In its route it passed the carrj-ing-places of the Indians. Over this road, then but 
an Indian trail, the troops of Frontenac passed in 1693, on their way to strike the 
fortified villages of the Mohawk. Upon it Colonel Schuyler built the forts from 
Stillwater to Fort jVnn, in the war of 1709. 

In the campaigns of 1744 and 1755, the French and their Indian aUies, with 
war-whoop, scalping-knife and tomahawk, swept down through the forests to 
the settlements of this region ; and in the seven years' war that followed, from 
1755 to 1703, it was by this road that Abercrombie led his troops to defeat and 
Amherst to the final triumph of the English arms; and here again swept back and 
forth the tide of war in alternate ebb and flow diu-ing the earlier period of the 
American Revolution. 

In the beginning of the contest the spirit of the colonies was little understood 
in England. Notwithstanding the warning of the American agents, it was 
believed that the war would be localized in Massachusetts, and that General Gage 
and a few regiments would easily reduce the rebellious colony. The uprising of 
the continent in reply to the guns at Lexington dispelled this illusion, and the 
British Ministry awakening to the magnitude of their undertaking, plans were laid 
for a continental campaign. 

Here a protest may be pardoned against the assumption of those who have 
doubted the ability of the colonies to maintain the liberty they had asserted with- 
out the French intervention, which the victory of Saratoga secured to the Ameri- 
can cause. A careful examination of the letters and newspapers of the day, which 
in the words of Webster, are the only true sources of historic information, will 
show that the colonists never doubted of their cause, and that they knew the reason 
of the faitli that was in them. They were fully aware of the numbers they had 
conlributt'd to the British forces in the Canadian conquest, and of the prowess 
they had displayed side by side with the best of the British regiments. 

Tliey were also informed of the extreme diflSculty with which the home govern- 
ment obtained its recruits. Already in the midille of the last century, under the 
atrocious land system of England and the devilnpment of manufactures, the agri- 
cultural population, tlie yeomanry, hardy sons of the .soil, which is the base of every 
great niililary state, had been fast disappearing. It was in 1770, before the Rev- 



173 Centennial Celebrations. 

olution, that Goldsmith, the poet of the people, breathed his himeut over the 
happy days long past — 

"Ere England's grief began, 
When every rood of land maintained its man." 

The words of the poet were as familiar to Americans as to their English parents, 
and they had received a striking confirmation in the enlistment by the Ministry of 
Hessian mercenaries, whose appearance in the colonies, while exciting the indigna- 
tion of the patriots, was positive pi'oof of the unpopularity of the war in England 
and the weakness of the mother country. 

The earlier movements of the colonial leaders show that they were tliorouglily 
acquainted with the art of war in its larger sense. They recognized the value of 
the great lines of water communication — the St. Lawrence and the Hudson — 
and foresaw that the first efforts of the British Ministry would be to control their 
mouths, from which, by their superior naval power, they could force the passages 
of the rivers and divide the territory. The Northern and Eastern people recog- 
nized this intuitively, and gave point and direction to the movement toward 
Canada by the seizure of Ticonderoga and Crown Point at the outset of hostili- 
ties. These important posts were surprised by the Eastern militia. Their artil- 
lery and stores were of priceless value to the Continental cause. 

The road to the St. Lawrence thus opened, and the temper of the Canadians 
and Indians of the lower provinces favoring the undertaking, it was resolved by 
Congress, in June, 1775, to take possession of St. John and Montreal, and General 
Schuyler was intrusted with the command of the forces destined for that purpose. 
No appointment could have been more appropriate than this. A gentleman of 
large landed estate in the northern section, thoroughly conversant with its resour- 
ces and topography, and familiar not only with tlic habits and customs of the 
frontier population, but also wielding a great personal influence with the Indian 
tribes, he was the only man who could effectually neutralize the efforts of the 
British agents to influence the savages, who had always taken an active part in 
the border warfare. Moreover, his great wealth and family alliances, gave strength 
to the cause. Selecting Ticonderoga as his natural base of operations, Schuyler 
built boats for a movement to surprise St. John, a position so important that it 
was called by the British officers the key of Canada. 

It is not possible here to recount the various incidents of the campaign. On 
the 3d of November, 1775, after a siege of fifty days, the garrison at St. Jolin 
capitulated to Montgomery, whom Schuyler, forced by illness, contracted in the 
wet, unhealthy country, to return to Ticonderoga, had left in command. On the 
13th Montgomery was at Montreal. Meanwhile Washington, to create a diversion 
in favor of the main movement, liad sent Arnold by the way of the Kennebec and 
the Chaudiere to a direct attack on Quebec. After incredible hardships, in tlie 
midst of a winter remarkable for its inclemency, Arnold reached Point Levi, 
opposite Quebec, on the 10th of November. The junction of Montgomery and 
Arnold was made on the 3d of December. 

On the morning of the last day of the year the assault was made; the Americans 
were repulsed and Montgomery fell. Thus ended the ofl'eusive movement upon 
Canada. Its result was the permanent holding by the British of the post of 
Quebec — which became impregnable with the re-enforcements received from Eng- 
land — and the mouth of the St. Lawrence, for a naval movement, toward the 
lakes. In the beginning of 177G efforts were made to strengthen the American 



Bemiis Heights. 173 

force in Canada; and the old road by the riverside, from Albanj' tlirough Still- 
water and Saratoga, was again trodden by thousands of recruits, marching to 
almost certain death by battle or disease. Upon the death of Montgomery the 
command of the army before Quebec devolved on Woyster. He was superseded 
by Thomas in May. The small-po.\ was raging. To convey an idea of the extent 
to which it had ravaged the army, it is only necessary to state that, on taking 
command, Thomas found that of 1,900 men and officers 900 were sick, chiefly 
with this disease. A retreat was ordered, but the re-cnforecd garrison sallying 
suddenly forth, the artillery was abandoned, and the Americans fled in precipita- 
tion. In June Thomas died of the small-pox at Chamblee, leaving Sullivan in 
command. An attempt by tlie new chief to arrest the retreat was the cause of 
fm-ther disaster. Tliompson, who led an expedition against Three Rivers, fell 
into an ambuscade, and was defeated by General Fraser. Among the British 
troojjs engaged were some who, arrived from England with the re-enforcements 
under Burgoync, had been piloted past Quebec by the orders of the sagacious 
Carletou in the very transports that had conveyed them across the ocean, and 
pushed up the river to the scene of action. Already the vast importance of the 
river as a means of military communication was apparent. The remainder of the 
fleet with the British rc-enforccnients coming up, the post of Sorel was abandoned 
by the Americans and the retreat again began. So close was the pursuit that the 
British advance entered Chamblee as the American rear left the town. At St. 
John they were joined by Arnold from Montreal. Firing the city, they again fell 
back to Isle aux Noix, and thence, slowly pursued by Bm-goyne, to Crown Point, 
which they reached in the last days of June. [1776.] 

So ended the invasion of Canada, an expedition remarkable for its display of 
human siiUering, human energy, and human endurance. History may be searched 
in vain for examples of greater pertinacity tmder disaster, greater vigor under the 
severest trials. The fragments of the gallant bands which had united before 
Quebec and were now huddled together at Crown Point presented a picture which 
wnuig tlie stoutest liearts. Pestilence was in their countenances. Pestilence 
infested the very air; not a tent in which there was not a dead or dying man. 
The bones of the heroic Jlontgomery and his aid-de-camp, McPher.son, lay within 
the walls of Quebec; Burr and Lamb were prisoners; iVrnold still chafed under 
a painful wound, and the array itself had dwindled to a liandful of emaciated 
skeletons. The troops at Crown Point now fell under the authority of General 
Schuyler. From the beginning the ill-health of Schuyler had rendered it impos- 
sible for him to take the field at the head of the army; moreover, his great organ- 
izing spirit, his tireless energy, were of more service to the cause at the Albany 
head-quarters, where his encouraging presence was indispensable. 

Arnold arrived at Albany with news of the retreat from Canada on the 24th 
of June. The next day Schuyler received information of the appointment of 
Major-Ctcneral Gates to the command of the forces in Canada. 

The in.structions to Gates gav<! him unusual powers. A question of jurisdiction 
at once arose, however, between himself and Scliuyler, which they agreed to sub- 
mit to Congress, which on the 8th determined it by leaving the supreme authority 
to Schuyler while this side of Canada, and to Gates when on the other side of 
the line. 

Horatio Gates, wlio now first ajipears upon th(! scene on the Canadian frontier, was 
of English birth. The son of a clergyman, lie received his name from his god- 
father, Horace Walpole, under whose protection he early entered the British 



1 74 Centennial Celebrations. 

service, and rose rapidly to the ranlv of major. His regiment being ordered to 
America, he was badly wounded in the Braddock campaign. Later he distin- 
guished himself by his bravery and capacity as an aid to Moncktou on the expe- 
dition against Martinique. At tlie close of the French war he purchased a fine 
estate in Berkeley county, Va., and became a successful farmer. On the break- 
ing out of the Revolution he volunteered his services to Congress, and receiving 
the rank of brigadier, was chosen adjutant-general of the army. In this capacity 
his military experience and training were of great value in the organization of the 
Continental forces, and he was thus engaged in daily communication with General 
Washington when he was assigned to his new command. He had been elected 
by Congress to the rank of major-general in May. 

Sullivan, taking offense at Gates' appointment, had retired from the army at 
Crown Point, the command of which was now assumed by Gates. A council of 
war, at which Schuyler, Gates, Sullivan, Arnold, and Baron de Woedtke were 
present, considering Crown Point as not tenable, ordered a withdrawal to Ticon- 
deroga, which was eflfected. TMs gave great umbrage to Colonel Stark and other 
New England officers, who remonstrated with Schuyler against the move. The 
council which ordered the withdrawal also resolved upon the defense of Lake 
Champlain, by a naval armament of gondolas, row galleys, and armed batteaux. 

On the 16th of July Gates reported that the loss sustained by death and deser- 
tion during the campaign amounted to more than five thousand men, and that 
three thousand more were sick. The army gradually recovered its health and 
spirits, the defenses of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence were strengthened, 
connection was made between the camp and the road to Skenesborough, guns 
were mounted, and, in a word, every endeavor made to secure the northern gate- 
way, of the New York colony. Though a further offensive movement against 
Canada seemed no longer practicable, the line of the Hudson and the lakes was 
of paramount importance. While aU eyes were turned in this du-ection, danger 
suddenly appeared at the other end of the line. New York city was invested by 
tlie most powerful fleet that had ever appeared in these western waters, and 
Washington was threatened by Lord Howe with a force of thirty thousand men. 
In July, Long Island was occupied by the enemy; in Septehibcr, New York fell 
into their permanent possession, and Washington retreated to the mainland. 

The naval armament prepared for the defense of Lake Champlain, by Arnold 
and the Americans, with incredible patience and labor, consisted of eiglit gon- 
dolas, three row galleys, and four sloops or schooners, but when finished there 
were only landsmen to command and soldiers to manojuvre them. Arnold, it is 
true, liad gained some experience as a supercargo on West India voyages ; yet, 
with his usual careless imprudence, he left the main channel of Lake Champlain 
free, and on the 4th of October sailed into tlie open lake. Meanwhile Carleton, 
assisted by shipbuilders from England, with abundant material from the Admir- 
alty and the fleet on the Canadian stations, had constructed more than two hun- 
dred flat boats at Montreal, and hauled them to St. Jolm, where they were 
launched and manned by seven hundred sailors and picked officers from thc.ships- 
of-war and a large force of German sliarpshooters and light artillery trained for 
the special service. On the 11th he sailed into the lake, and taking the main 
passage which Arnold had left open, fell on the American rear. A sharp action 
ensued, and for two days a running fight was maintained. Arnold's vessel sus- 
tained the contest to the last, but was finally driven into a creek on the eastern shore, 
where she was fired, the crew marcliing away in perfect order, with colors flying. 



Bemus Heights. 175 

On the 14lh Carleton landed at Crown Point, the master of the lake. Two 
hours distant lay Ticonderoga, an easy prey. But further movement was not his 
intention. He returned to Canada, and went into winter quarters in November. 
Thus was the golden opportunity lost for a junction of his forces with those of 
Lord Howe. This military lilunder must not be ascribed to Carleton, who had 
received explicit instructions from Lord Germain to return to Quebec and re- 
establish good order and government in the province. He was also directed to 
send a detachment, under Burgoyne or some other officer, to re-enforce General 
Howe at New York. When Gates heard that Carleton had turned his back on 
Crown Point he dismissed the militia, wliich liad rallied in large numbers to his 
support. He had no provisions for tlicir maintenance, and no ammunition for 
an offensive movement, had such a movement been desirable. The season of 
1776 closed with Quebec and New York in tlie hands of the British. The lines 
of invasion by the St. Lawrence and lower Hudson were entirely open to the 
enemy. Schuyler was at Albany, indefatigable in his labors to secure the north- 
em defenses, and Washington in the Jerseys, covering the Highlands, and ready 
to move on any menaced point . 

Having thus endeavored as hurriedly as possible to sketch the Canada cam- 
paign from its promising beginning to its disastrous close, a few words may be 
permitted before passing to the consideration of the events of 1777, which we are 
to-day celebrating as to the attitude and position of New York at this juncture. 
For both the offensive campaign of 1776 and the defensive campaign of 1777 
Northern New York, with Albany as its center, was the base of ojierations. It 
was the Albany Committee of Safety which first garrisoned Ticonderoga after its 
capture. At Albany, arms, anmuinition, and supplies were gathered. There 
guns were mounted, ammunition fi.xed, cartridges prepared. The magazines, 
arsenals, and laboratories were there. Till the final peace in 1783, Albany was 
not only the secure base for all the operations of the Northern Department, but 
the supply point whence the material of war was drawn even for distant expedi- 
tions . 

Unfortunately for the perfect fame of our great State, justice has never yet been 
done to its history. The Dutch period has been admirably portrayed by O'Calla- 
ghan and Broadhead, l)ut the recital of her struggle for liberty and independence 
thro\igh the whole of the eighteenth century yet awaits the pen of some one of 
her gifted sons. Wlien it shall be written, it will be found that she was second to 
none in devotion to the principles of indi\ndual freedom, not for herself alone, 
but for all the colonics. Her first commercial corporation displayed this feeling in 
the adoption of the generous motto: " j\'o)i nobis nati solum ^' — we are not born 
for ourselves alone, and during her subsequent history this has been her marked 
characteristic. 

Her central position made her the seat of war and subjected her to privations 
and sufferings which were unknown to the other colonies. Indeed, her calamities 
were a source of profit to her Ea,stern neighbors. When New York flourished 
they participated in her commerce and shared her prosperity, but when by the 
fortune of war her opulent seaport fell into the hands of the enemy, she was not 
only burdened by a large population which had depended upon the luxury and 
trade of the capital, but, by an unjust customs discrimination, was compelled to 
pay tribute to neighboring colonies, who refused to permit the passage through 
their territory of goods intended for consumption within her borders without 
payment of an import duty to thenjselves. This injustice was long remembered. 



176 Centennial Celebrations. 

There were other siiiierings greater than tlie paralysis of trade. There was not a 
county iu the State which was not at some time overrun by the enemj', carrying 
with them devastation and ruin. And still more terrible, her defenseless homes 
were exposed to the merciless savages, armed and incited by the ruthless policy of 
Great Britain. The traditions of these suii'erings have been handed down among 
our people, and form the thrilling incident of legend and of song. 

After the return of Carleton to Quebec, Burgoyne, whose ambition was not satis- 
fied with a secondary command, obtained in December a leave of absence and 
returned to England, where he was sure of court favor. Of obscure and proba- 
bly illegitimate birth, he had allied himself by a runaway match with Lady Stan- 
ley, a daughter of the Earl of Derby. Immediately on his arrival he offered his 
services to the King in a personal interview, and submitted his views in a paper, 
entitled "Thoughts for Conducting the War from the side of Canada," on the 
28th of February, 1777. In this plan we find for the first time a thoroughly 
devised scheme for the junction of the Canadian army with that of General 
Howe. The Canada army, operating from Ticonderoga, was to take possession of 
Albany, and after opening communication with New York, to remain upon the 
Hudson river, and thereby enable Howe to act with his whole force to the south- 
ward. The plan included a diversion by the Mohawk, and a rising of the loyal- 
ists in that region by means of an expedition under the command of Lieutenant- 
Colonel St. Leger. The King's remarks upon this plan still exist in the original 
document, in his handwriting in the British Museum. His criticism of it shows 
strong common sense, and a thorough knowledge of the field of action in America. 
The point which will be found of most interest is his urgent recommendation 
"that possession should betaken of Lake George." Nothing, ho says, "but 
an absolute impossibility of succeeding in this can be an excuse for proceeding by 
South bay and Skenesborough," which Burgoyne had suggested as an alternative. 
With regard to the Indians, the King says that "they must be employed." 

The order of the campaign being definitely arranged, Lord Germain addressed 
instructions to General Carleton, on the 20th of March, and the next day Burgoyne 
left London for Plymoutli to take passage for Canada. He arrived at Quebec on 
the 6th of May. Carleton immediately put under his command the troops destined 
for the expedition and committed to his management the preparatory arrange- 
ments. Before he left Plymouth, Burgoyne had advised Sir William Howe of his 
purpose to effect a junction with him, and he also sent him a second letter to the 
same effect from Quebec. On the 10th of June he issued his orders for the gen- 
eral disposition of the army at St. John. The movements of the troops were 
somewhat delayed by bad weather and bad roads, but notwith.standing all imped- 
iments the army of invasion assembled between the 17th and 20tli of June at 
Cumberland Point, near the foot of Lake Champlain. On the 31st he held a con- 
ference with the Indian tribes at the camp on the River Boquet. Burgoyne, with 
the main body, reached Crown Point on the 37th of June. 

Many accounts have been written of the picturesque appearance of the brilliant 
array of tlie British army as it passed up the lake. Tliat of Captain Thomas 
Anburey, an educated young officer in the British service, and an eye-witness of 
the scenes he described, deserves repetition. "It moved," he says, " by brigades, 
gradually advancing from seventeen to twenty miles a day, and regulated in such 
a manner that the second lirigade sliould take the encampment of the first, and so 
on, eacli successively filling the ground tlie other quitted. The time for depart- 
ure was always at dayl)reak." The spectacle the enthusiastic young gentleman 



Bemus Heights. 17'r 

portmys as oue of the most pleasing he ever beheld. " Wlicn in the widest part 
of the lake it was reiHarkably fine and clear, not a breeze stining, when tlie whole 
anny ajipcarod at one view iu sucli perfect r(;gularity as to form the most com- 
plete and splendid regatta ever beheld. In tlie front the Indians went in their 
l>irch canoes, containing twenty or thirty in eacli ; then the advanced corps in a 
rcgnUir line with the gun-boats; then followed the Uoyal George and luHe.xible, 
towing large booms, which are to bo thrown across two points of land, with the 
other brigs and sloops following; after them the brigades in their order." On 
the 30tli Burgoyne issued his famous order: "This army embarks to-morrow to 
approacli the enemy. The services recpiired of this particular expedition are crit- 
ical and conspicuous. During our progress occasions may occur in which nor dif- 
ficulty nor labor nor life are to be regarded. This army must not retreat. " An 
advanced corps, under command of General Fraser, was ordered up the west 
sliore of the lake to a point four miles from Ticonderoga, and the German reserve, 
under Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman, moved up the eastern shore. 

On the 1st July the whole army made a movement forward, encamping in two 
lines, the right wing at the four mile point, the left nearly opposite, on the east 
shore. Two frigates witli gun-boats lay at anchor, covering the lake from the 
east to the west shores. Just beyond cannon-shot lay the American batteries. 
Tlie effective strength of the army of invasion at this period is precisely known. 
Burgoyne himself stated it to have been on the 1st July, the day before he 
encamped before Ticonderoga, at 7, 3fl0 men, exclusive of artillery. These were 
composed of British rank and file, 3,724; German rank and file 3,01C,; in all 
6,740 regulars; Canadians and provincials, about 250; Indians about 400; the 
artillerymen numbered 473. The total force was therefore 7,803 men. The 
field train consisted of forty-two pieces, and was unusually complete in all its 
details. Burgoyne in his narrative complained that the force of Canadians, 
which was estimated in the plan at 2,000, did not exceed 1.50; a significant cir- 
cumstance, as showing the correctness of the American estimate of the temper 
of the province. Of the discipline of the British and German troops nothing- 
need be said; they were all drilled and experienced soldiers. Among their officers 
were many who tlioroughly understood the service in which they were engaged, 
and the topograpliy of the country in which they were to act. Burgoyne had 
served with credit, and had di.stingui.shcd himself by his dash and gallantry iu 
Portugal, and had also the knowledge acquired in Canada the year previous. 
Major-Gcneral Phillips, who commanded the artillery, had won high praise at 
Minden. Brigadier-General Fraser, who led the picked corps of liyht troops, had 
taken part in the expedition against Louisburg and was with Wolfe at Quebec. 
He also had served iu the Canada campaign of 1776. Riedesel was an accom- 
plished officer, carefully trained in tlie service of the Duke of Brunswick, and liad 
been selected by him to command the German contingents, with the rank of major- 
general . 

Tlie territory threatened by this formidalile invasion was again at this iicriixl 
under the solo control of Jlajor-General Scliuyler, Congress, on (he 22d INIay, on the 
recommendation of the Board of War, having resolved that Albanj', Ticonderoga, 
Fort Stanwix, and their dependencies, should form the Northern Department, 
with General Schuyler in command. Vague reports of the movements of Burgoyne 
reached Schuyler toward the middle of .Tune and he at once visited Ticonderoga to 
look to its defenses. No accurate information of the force or design of the enemy 
could be oVjtained, their advance being Ihoroiighly covered by Indian scouts, who 



178 Centennial Celebrations. 

either captured or drove in all the reconnoitering parties of the Americans. Never- 
tlieless, it was decided in a council of general officers, held on the 20th June, to 
defend the post. On the 33d Schuyler returned to Albany to hurry on re-enforce- 
ments and provisions, leaving the garrison, which consisted of less than twenty-five 
hundred men, in command of Major-General St. Clair. This was increased by the 
arrival of nine hundred militia in the course of a few days. 

The post of Ticonderoga, notwithstanding its high reputation, was not really 
tenable. It was overlooked by an eminence known by the name of Sugar Hill, 
or Mount Defiance, the occupation of which had been neglected, either because of 
the supposed impracticability of carrying guns to its summit, or of the weakness 
of tlie garrison, already spread over an extensive area. St. Clair had expected an 
attack from the lake side, and had fortified to meet it, but recognized the danger 
of his situation when on the morning of the 5th the British were seen in possession 
of Sugar Hill. With his accustomed vigor, General Phillips had ordered a battery 
of artillery to the top of this eminence, to which the cannon were hoisted from 
tree to tree. The occupation of Mount Hope by Fraser on the 3d had already cut 
off the line of retreat by Lake George. There was but one course to pursue — an 
immediate evacuation of the post and a withdrawal by the only remaining line, 
that of the lake to Skenesborough. That night part of the cannon were safely 
embarked on batteaux, those left behind were spiked, and a hasty retreat began ; 
the sick and the baggage, ordinance and stores, were sent up the lake under charge 
of Colonel Long, and the main body crossing the lake by the bridge to Jlount 
Independence moved towards Skenesborough by the new road lately cut by the 
garrison, to which allusion has already been made. The retreat was discovered at 
daylight on the 6th, and pursuit instantly began. Fraser, taking the route pur- 
sued by the garrison with the picket guard, hastened on, closely followed by Ried- 
esel in support, while Burgoyne opened a passage through the bridge and led the 
galleys in chase of the battery up the lake. The wind being favorable, he over- 
took the retreating flotilla at Skenesborough, captured two of the covering galleys, 
and compelled the destruction of the batteaux, which were fired by the Americans, 
who also destroyed the fort and mills at Skenesborough and retired up Wood Creek, 
to Fort Ann. General Burgoyne took post at Skenesborough. 

Meanwhile the main body of the Americans under St. Clair, hurrying along the 
unfinished road through the wilderness, reached Hubbardton, twenty-five miles 
distant, at one o'clock on the 6th, when a halt was made. At five o'clock, hearing 
tliat the rear gu.ard under Colonel Francis, for which he had waited, was coming 
up, St. Clair, leaving Colonel AVarner with one hundred and fifty men at Hubbard- 
ton, with orders to follow Avhen they arrived, moved on to Castleton, six miles 
distant^ which he reached at dusk. When Francis joined Warner, they concluded 
to spend the niglit at Hubbardton, where they were overtaken the next morning, 
when on the point of resuming their march, by Fraser's advance. The Americans, 
about twelve hundred in number, formed a strong position and maintained their 
ground with spirit until the bugle of the Hessians announced the approach of 
Riedcsel's corps. Their arrival decided the fortune of the day. The Americans 
behaved with great bravery until overpowered by numbers, when they broke and 
scattered. The losses in killed and wounded were about equal on the two sides. 
Fraser led his men in person. Major Grant, an officer of high rejiutation, was 
killed. The Earl of Balcarras, who led the light infantry, and was now for the 
first time in action, was slightly, and Major Ackland severely wounded. Of the 
Americans, Colonel Francis fell while bravely rallying his men. St. Clair, hear- 



Bemus Heights. 1 79 

ing of the capture of Skenesborough, struck into tho woorls on liis left. At Hut- 
land lu' found aomc. of Warner's fugitives. Taking a circuitous route, he rcachcil 
tlio Hudson River at Batten Kill, and joined General Schuyler at Fort Edward on 
the 12th. 

Schuyler heard on the morning of the 7th, in Albany, rumor of disaster, and 
immediately started for Fort Edward, to take command of the troops tliere, and 
await the arrival of Ni.xon's brigade from Peekskill, which had been detached 
from Putnam's command at the Highlands by Washington's orders. At Fort 
Edward he learned that the party under Colonel Long had turned at Fort Ann 
and checked the pursuit. Setting fire to the work, they pushed on to Fort 
Edward, which they reached on the 9th. St. Clair, as has been stated, did not 
come in till the 12th. The whole force imdcr Schuyler consisted of seven hun- 
dred Continental troops and a smaller number of militia, without a single piece 
of artillery. St. Clair brought in about fifteen hundred men. On the 13th Nixon 
arrived with his brigade of six himdred from Albany, and on the 30th the whole 
force fit for duty was returned at 4,467 men, half-equipped and deficient in ammu- 
nition and every kind of supplies. Before them at Skenesborough, within a day's 
forced march, lay Burgoyne with his superior force of veteran troops, flushed 
with victory. 

The first period of the campaign, as Burgoyne termed it in his narrative of his 
operations, ended at Skenesborough. So far his march had been successful ; tri- 
umphant even. With proud exultation his general orders of the 10th, issued at 
Skenesborough House, directed that divine ser\dce should be performed on the 
next Sunday at the head of the line and of the advance corps, and a feu de joic 
to be fired at sunset on the same day witli cannon and small arms at Ticonderoga, 
Crown Point, the camp at Skenesborough, the camp at Castleton, and the post of 
Breyman's coqis. In the hour of pride commenced the second period of Burgoyne's 
campaign, which may be termed the period of his errors and his misfortunes. 
In the plan laid before the King, Burgoyne, as has already been stated, had him- 
self expressed his belief that the possession of Lake George was of great conse- 
quence as the most expeditious and most commodious route to Albany, and that 
by South Bay and Skenesborougli should not be attempted; and the King him- 
self expressed a similar opinion, adding that nothing but an ab.solute impossi- 
bility of succeeding by Lake George should be an excuse for proceeding by the 
other route. A glance at the map, even to one not familiar with the topography 
of the country, will make this apparent. The distance from Ticonderoga to Lake 
George is little over two miles. Lake George itself is about thirty-five miles long. 
The petty naval force on the lake, consisting of two small schooners, could not 
have resisted a brigade of g\inbo,ats. Fort George could have opposed no serious 
obstacle to the conqueror of "Ty." 

Gordon says, on military authority, and adds that Gates, who was familiar with 
every inch of ground, had rejieatcdly expressed the same opinion, that by a rapid 
movement with light pieces Burgoyne coiild have reached Albany by the time he 
got to the riudson. This view was corroborated by Captain Bloomfield, of the 
Koyal Artillery. In evidence before the committee of the House of Commons on 
the conduct of the campaign, he said that the artillery could have been easily 
moved by land from Fort George to the Hudson river in two days. Even when 
at Skenesborough the true policy of Burgoyne was an immediate return to Ticon- 
deroga to avail of the water line. Ilis orders were to move by the most exjie- 



180 Centennial Celebrations. 

ditious route. But General Burgoyne had proclaimed, "This army must not 
retreat," aud Phillips, his chief adviser, is known to have held the Americans in 
great contempt. Jefferson said of him, of personal knowledge, "that he was 
the proudest man of the proudest nation on earth." It has been said further tliat 
Burgoyne was misled by Mr. Skene, who had persuaded him of a lising of the 
loyalists in the region ; and of Skene, that his main object was to secure the 
building of a military road through the extensive property of which he was pro- 
prietor, and which bore his name. Skenesborough is the present Whitehall. 

Burgoyne, in excuse for his delay, saj's that, from the natm'e of the country and 
the necessity of waiting a fresh supply of provisions, it was impossible to follow 
the quick retreat of the Americans, and considered the short cut from Fort Ann 
to Fort Edward, though attended witli great labor, as the most available route. 
Here was the first great error, of which the alert Schuyler, to whom every inch of 
the ground was familiar, was quick to take advantage. Immediately upon the 
arrival of Nixon's Brigade at Fort Edward, it was advanced to Fort Ann to fell 
trees into Wood Creek, and upon the road from Port Ann south. So thoroughly 
was this effected that the invading army was compelled to remove at every ten or 
twelve yards great trees which lay across the road, and exclusive of the natural 
difficulties of the country, the watery ground and marshes were so numerous that 
they were compelled to construct no less than forty bridges (one of which was 
nearly two miles in length) on the march from Skenesborough to Fort Edward. 
Lake George was partially used for the transport of stores, Fort George, at the 
head of the lake, having been abandoned by the Americans, who, after saving 
forty pieces of cannon and fifteen tons of gunpowder, barely escaped being cut 
off by the movement of the enemy to Fort Edward. Such were the obstructions 
thrown in his way that Burgoyne only made his head -quarters at Fort Edward on 
the 30th of July, having consumed twenty-four days after his arrival at Skenes- 
boi'ough in a movement of twenty-six miles. Here his eyes were cheered with a 
first view of the Hudson, a vision delusive as a mir.agc. 

Schuyler, having secured his artillery, began to fall back and, on the 27th, 
abandoned Fort Edward to the British, taking post at Moses' Creek, four miles 
below, which Kosciusko had settled upon as a more defensible place than Fort 
Edward, which was almost in ruins. So elated was Schuyler by the bringing off 
of the artillery, that he wrote that " he believed the enemy would not see Alban}' 
this campaign." A week later, by advice of all the general officers, he moved his 
army, first to Fort Miller, six miles below, then to Saratoga, and finally to Still- 
water, about thirty miles north of Albany, where he proposed to await re-enforce- 
ments and fortify a camp. Stillwater was reached on the 3d of August, and an 
intronchment was begun the next day. 

The fall of Ticonderoga had excited intense alarm throughout the countrj'; the 
popular imagination had invested it with the impregnabitity of an enchanted 
castle. Its capture had been the first conquest of the patriots, and it was supposed 
to be the natural key to the northern region. Yet in spite of the popular discourage- 
ment, the leaders were still hopeful of a happy result of the campaign. So con- 
fident was Schuyler in ultimate success that he expressed the presentiment on the 
14th of July that "we shall still have a Merry Christmas," and on the 3.5th he 
wrote to the Committee of Albany that the progress of Burgoyne need give no 
alarm — to use his own words, that should he ever get as far down as Half Moon 
he would run himself into the greatest danger, and that in all probability his whole 
army would be destroyed. This ho])efulness was not confined to Schuyler. W.asli- 



15e.mu.s IIkiuuts. 181 

ini^ton liiinsolf at this pcrioil rxprcsspd liis opinion that the success Burgoync had 
met with '• would precipitate his ruin," and that liLs "acting in detachments was 
the course of all otiiersmost favorable to the American cause." He adds: " Could 
wc be so happy as to cut one of them oS, supposing it should not exceed four, 
five or six hundred men, it would inspirit the people and do away with much of 
their present anxiety. In such an event they would lose siglit of past misfortune, 
anil, lu'ged at the same time by a regarii for their own security, they would fly to 
arms and afford every aid in their power." In view of the events about to trans- 
pire, the words of the great chief seem almost prophetic. 

To us in these days, looking over the field without passion, prejudice or fear, 
it seems that even a junction between Burgoync and Howe would not have been 
by any means fatal to the patriot cause. The British had not the force adequate 
to niaiutaiii the line of the Hudson. At no time did their army at the north hold 
more than the ground on which they stood. Howe, like Burgoync, derived his 
provisions and supplies from England. 

Wliile Burgoync was slowly plodding his way against almost insuperable diiii- 
culties in the path lie had chosen, checking desertion only b}' constant executions, 
and even bj' authority to the savages to scalp every soldier found outside the lines, 
St. Leger, with his command re-enforced by Sir John Johnson and the loyalists of 
Tryon county, appeared before Fort Stanwix on the 2d of August. Tlie story of 
the siege and the bloody struggle on the field of Oriskany need not be recited 
here. The brave resistance of the garrison under Ganscvoort and Willet, and the 
heroic Ijchavior of Herkimer and the yeomanry of Tryon against desperate odds, 
have lately been occasion of centennial celebration. This expedition was a prin- 
cipal feature of tlie original plan of the campaign, and, although St. Leger held 
an independent command, his failure was a complete paralysis of the right wing 
of the army of invasion. Stunned by the resistance he encountered, and learning 
of the re-enforcement of the Americans by troojjs from Schuyler's command, he 
retraced his steps to Oswego, and thence with the remnant of his force to Jlon- 
treal, where he aiTived too late to take any further part in the campaign. 

From the 30th of July to the loth of August, Burgoyne was busy at Fort 
Edward, getting down batteaux, provisions and ammunition from Fort George to 
the Hudson, a distance of about sixteen miles. The roads were out of repair in 
some parts, steep and mtich broken by exceeding heavy rains ; with all his exer- 
tions he was not able in fifteen days to accumulate more than four daj's' provis- 
ions for a forward movement. This delay, however, enabled him to carry out 
another cherished plan, that of detaching a corps from his left, in order, to use 
his own words, "to give jealousy" to Connecticut, and hold in check the 
country known as the Hampshire Grants. To this he had been further incited by 
Major-Gencral Riedesel, who had comnuuided the Black Hussars in Germany, 
and was now anxious to mount his dragoons. 

Besides this indticement, Burgoyne had learned that Bennington was the great 
deposit of corn, flour and cattle, that it was guarded by militia ouly, and that the 
country about was much disaffected to the Americans. Under these impressions, 
with this purpose, and being now ready for his own advance, he despatched an 
expedition under lyieutenant-Colonel Baum. At daybreak on the 14lh, Burgoyne 
broke camp at Fort Edward and fjegan his advance. His objective point was 
Albany, where he expected to be joined by St. Leger coming down the Mohawk, 
and Baum from his raid upon Bennington. 

On the Mtli, he established his head-i|ii;n'ters at Duer's house (at Fort Miller), 



182 Centenmial Celebrations. 

about six miles below. A bridge of rafts was constructed, over which the advance 
corps passed the Hudson and encamped on the heights of Saratoga. On the 17th, 
before the main body could be gotten over, the river being swollen by heavy 
rains, and the current runnijig rajsidly, the bridge was carried away. The 
advance being thus isolated, was recalled, and recrossed the river in scows and 
took up their old encampment on the IJatten Kill. Here, at a shoal part of the 
river, a pontoon was constructed across the Hudson, directly opposite Saratoga, 
which was completed about the 30th. But obstacles of another nature presented 
themselves. On the 17th, Burgoyne receiving information of disaster to Baiun, 
and suddenly convinced of the impossibility of obtaining provisions and supplies 
from the country, in his general orders informed the troops of the necessity of a 
halt. For the iirst time his eyes were opened to the difficulties of his situation. 
He found himself vi'ith an extended line of communication, no hope of obtaining 
provisions in the neighborhood, deceived as to the sentiment of the country and 
in the midst of a hardy population exulting in success. The surprise and defeat 
of Baum by Stark and Warner, with the New England militia, on the loth of 
August, was not to liim the most discouraging feature of the battle of Benning- 
ton. It was the rally of the farmers from every quarter, all accustomed to the use 
of firearms from childhood, in a section of country abounding in game. Not 
Braddock himself in the toils of Indian stratagem was more helpless than the 
Hessians of Baum and Brej'man, with clumsy accoutrements, their heavy boots 
sinking at every step deep in the wet soil, and moving with military discipline, 
exposed to the fire of a thousand marksmen concealed by bushes and trees. 

To relate the incidents of the glorious victory at this time, and before this 
audience, would be to tell a " twice-told tale." But it is not to be forgotten that 
this battle also was fought on the soil of the Empire State. Its result justified 
Washington's military judgment in his opinion of the danger to Burgoyne of 
detached operations, and the enthusiasm it aroused realized his prediction and 
showed his thorough knowledge of the temper of the people. To the army 
of Burgoj'ne the consequences were serious. The return of the scattered remnant 
of the force, which went out from camp in such high hopes and spirits, damped 
the ardor of both officers and men. A few days later a courier from St. Leger, 
guided by a friendly Indian by Saratoga Lake and Glen's Falls, brought intelli- 
gence of failure in that quarter. The shadow which had fallen on the army now 
deepened into gloom. In spite of all these discouragements, the proud spirit of 
Burgoyne could not brook the thought of abandoning the expedition. Choosing 
to adopt a strict construction of the King's orders, " to go to Albany," he assumed 
the entire responsibility of further advance without consultation of his officers. 

It was not until the 12th September that Burgoyne, compelled to depend wholly 
upon Canada for supplies, had accumulated the thirty days' provisions which he 
thought necessary to his further advance. On that day he issued his orders to move. 

His army crossed the Hudson on the 13th, and on the 14tli encamped on the 
heights and plains of Saratoga. Here was the country seat of General Schuy- 
ler, with his commodious dwelling, his mill, a church and several houses. 
Not a living creature was to be seen, but broad fields, rich with waving grain 
ready for the reaper. Before night the wheat was cut and threshed and in the 
mill for grinding. The Indian corn was apportioned as forage for the horses, and 
the beautiful plantation, which in the morning was a scene of peace and plenty, 
stripped to the last blade. The jjassage of the river was the close of what Bur- 
goyne terms the second period of his campaign. 



Beaiu.s IIkights. 183 

Before entering on the third period, which may be termed the battle period, 
we must return to tlie American army, which we left under Schuyler at Stillwater, 
intrenching their camp on the 4th August. On the same day he received advice 
of the investment of Fort Stanwix; on the 7th reports of the battle of Oriskany, 
with exaggerated account of the American loss. On tlie 11th he detached Gen- 
eral Learned to the assistance of the garrison, and on the loth Arnold, whom 
Washington liad ordered to the Northern Department, because of his encouraging 
presence to the dispirited militia, was sent up with full powers to cover the 
Mohawk settlements. Alarmed by the prospect of St. Leger's descent by the 
Mohawk River, Schuyler, who on every occasion displaycil strategic skill of tlie first 
order, fill back from .'Stillwater to the confluence of the Hudson and the Jlohawk 
where, on the 14th, he took post on Van Schaick's Island, nine miles from Albany. 
This had been selected as a secure position for the main body, which had been 
greatly weakened by the detachments sent up the valley of the Mohawk and to 
the Hampshire Grants, where General Lincoln had gone, by order of Washington, 
to organize a movement to cut off Burgoyne's communication with Canada. 

Correct as all these movements of General Schuyler appear to us now, as seen 
in the light of history, they were the cause of intense dissatisfaction to the people, 
whom each successive movement of Burgoyne had filled with alarm. Rumors 
derogatory to the personal courage and integrity, as well as the patriotism, of 
Schuyler were rife in all sections, particularly in New England, where the old preju- 
dice against their Dutch neighbors still prevailed. In all the difficulties with 
regard to boundary Schuyler had been prominent iu defense of the rights of the 
New York colony, and the antagonism between the two sides of the river was 
now intensified by the revolt of the Hampshire Grants against tlie authority of 
Xew York, and their declared purpose to set up a State for themselves. Schuy- 
ler, whose spirit was high and whose nature was sensitive to excess, chafed sorely 
under the acensalion against him, but, sustained by his own sense of tlie value of 
his services, the sympathy of the New York government and the confidence of 
Washington, he had maintained his command. The year before he had demanded 
an investigation into his conduct iu evacuating Crown Point, which was looked 
upon !is the beginning of disaster, and had tendered his resignation to Congress, 
who, however, refused to accept of it, and promised an investigation of his con- 
duct. In November he had ai)plied again to Congress for permission to repair to 
Philadelphia on that business, to which Congress consented. Appointed delegate 
to Congress by the New York Convention, he had taken his seat in April, and 
secured the p;us.sage of a resolution of inquiry. The committee made a report in 
May, which thoroughly vindicated him and ]ilaccd him iu full command of the 
Northern Department. 

The advance of Burgoyne, penetrating into the heart of the country, and the 
fact that Schuyler himself had perstmally participated in no engagement, revived 
the distrust with which he wa*; viewed by the Eastern troops; a distrust which 
paralyzed his influence and made a change in the command of the Northern 
Department an absolute necessity. No stronger ])roof of the existence and 
strength of this feeling is needed than his own words. Writing to Washington 
from Saratoga, on the 28th July, he said: " So far from the militia that are with 
me increasing, they are daily diminishing, and I am very confident that in ten 
days, if the enemy should not disturb us, we shall not have five hundred left; and 
although I have entreated this and tlic Eastern States to send up a re-enforcement 



184 Centhnjmial Celebratiojsts. 

of them, yet I doubt miicli if any will come up wlien the spirit of malevolence 
knows no bounds, and I am considered as a traitor." 

On the 1st of August Congress passed resolutions ordering General Schuyler 
to repair to head-quarters, and directed Washington to order such general officer 
as he deemed proper to relieve him in his command. On the 4tli a letter from 
Washington was laid before Congress, asking to be excused from making an 
appointment of an officer to command the Northern army. An election was tlien 
held by Congress, and Major-General Gates was chosen by the vote of eleven 
States. AVashington was informed of the result, and was directed to order Gene- 
ral Gates at once to his post. Washington . was then at Philadelpliia, and the 
same day informed Gates of his appointment. Schuyler was at Albany when the 
resolution reached him on the 10th. His magnanimity on this occasion is matter 
of record. Solomon tells us that, "Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that 
taketh a city." To no man, of whom liistorj', ancient or modern, makes mention 
can tliis phrase be more justly applied than to Schuyler. The judgment of Con- 
gress as to the propriety of a change is sufficiently shown by Schujder's own letters 
to that body on the 15th August, in which he said that he had not been joined 
by any of the New England militia, and that there were only sixty or seventy on 
the ground from the State of New York. Whether Schuyler had great military 
capacity or not is a question which cannot be answered. That he had no opportu- 
nity of displaying it on the field is certain; that he was possessed of tlie strongest 
common sense and of that rarest quality in the human mind, tlie organizing 
faculty, is beyond doubt. No other man in America could have performed the 
services whicli he rendered, and it may certainly be said that they were second 
only to those of Washington in importance and extent. He continued in com- 
mand of the troops until the arrival of Gates on the 19th August, to whom he 
gave the cordial reception of a soldier and a gentleman. 

Gates was by no means overjoyed at the responsibility with which he was 
intrusted. He found the army dejected, although somewhat encouraged by the 
victory at Bennington. His arrival revived the spirits of the troops, and the 
precision which he at once introduced into the camp increased their resolution. 
Words of congratulation and encouragement pressed in upon him from the east- 
ward, and the announcement of the approacli of militia from all sections added 
to the courage of the men. 

During the retreat the army had been greatly distressed by the savages in Bur- 
goyne's command, who hung upon the flanks and outposts, and by their merciless 
cruelty excited an alarm which their real importance by no means justified. 
AVashington, aware of tlie disadvantages under which the militia lay in their 
apprehension from this cause, on the 30th dispatched Colonel Morgan to his assist- 
ance with his corps of riflemen. This corps of five hundred men was a coi'ps d' elite, 
which had been selected from the entire army for their proficiency in the use of 
the rifle and the Indian mode of warfare. Gates thanked Washington warmly 
for this valuable assistance and for his advice concerning the use to be made of them. 
They arrived on the 33d. To them Gates added two hundred and fifty bayonets, 
also carefully picked from the line, whom he placed under the command of Major 
Dearborn, a determined officer. 

On the 8th September, the army havmg been recruited to about 6,000 men, 
Gates felt strong enough to make a forward movement, and marched to Stillwater, 
where a line of intrenchments was begun the next day. It was soon found, how- 
ever, that the extent of low ground was too great to admit of proper defense of 



Bkmus IIkigiits. 185 

flit' center iiiul left. A more favorable point was selected, two miles and a lialf to 
the northward, where a range of hills, covered by a narrow defile in front and 
jutting close upon the river, offered an admirable defensive position. The forti- 
iicatiua was at once begun, under the direction of Kosciusko, the Engineer-in- 
C'liief, and the army took possession on the 12th. The ground is that which was 
then and is now known as Bemus Heights, and upon it were contested the hard- 
fought actions which determined the campaign. Here Gates resolved to await 
the attack of Burgoyne, without precipitating movements with his mostly raw 
troops until they had acquired some discipline ; certainly not until he should hear 
of the .success of the attempt making to reach Burgoyne's rear and distress his 
army. 

General Lincoln, who was ch.arged with this expedition, moved from JlanclieB- 
ter to Pawlet with his militia force, consisting of about two thousand men. On 
bis advance, the British guard at Skenesborough fell back, destroying a number 
of boats. On the 13th he despatched Colonel Brown with five hundred men to 
the landing at Lake George, to release the American prisoners and destroy the 
British stores, and the same number of men under Colonel Johnson to Mount 
Independence, to create a diversion in favor of the operations of Colonel Brown, 
who was directed to push to Ticonderoga, if opportunity offered. A like number 
of men was also sent, under Colonel Woodbridge, to Skenesborough, thence to 
Fort Ann, and on to Fort Edward. Lincoln at once advised Gates of this move- 
ment. Colonel Brown managed his operations with great skill and secrecy. After 
a night march he reached the north end of Lake George at daybreak on the morn- 
ing of the 17th, surprisingjn detail all the outposts between the landing and the 
fortress of Ticonderoga, Mount Deiiancc, Jlount Hope, the French lines, a block- 
house, two hundred batteaux and several gunboats, taking prisoners two hundred 
and ninety-three British and Canadians, and releasing one hundred Americans. 
Among his trophies was the Continental standard left at " Ty " when the Fort was 
evacuated. The gims at Fort Defiance were turned upon the fortress of Ticonde- 
roga, but no impression could bo made on its walls. Taking the gunboats, Brown 
sailed up tlie lake, and on the 24th made an attack on Diamond Island, about four 
miles north of Fort George, but was warmly received and repulsed. JIaking for 
the eastern shore, he reached the camp of General Warner at Skenesborough on 
the 2Gth, by the way of Fort Ann. A curious testimony to the effect of these 
raids on the rear of the British army exists in the Gates papers, in an intercepted 
letter from St. Leger, WTitten at Ticonderoga the 29th of September, informing 
Burgoyne of his arrival there, and asking for guides to lead him down. 

To return to Burgoyne, whom we left encamped at Saratoga on the 14tn. The 
next day he moved forward at noon, forming his troops into three columns, after 
passing Schuyler's house, and encamped at Dovogat (the present Coevillcj, where 
they lay accoutred that night. On the IGth there was a fog so heavy that even 
foragers were forbidden to leave camp. Later in the day detached parties were 
em|)loyed in repairing the bridges and reconnoitering the countr}-. 

On the 17th the army resumed their march, repaired bridges and encamped at 
Sword's Farm, four miles from Gates' position. The general orders directed the 
army to be imder arms at an hour before daybreak. Ilis approach was known to 
Gates by report of his adjutant, Wilkinson, who led a scouting party and saw the 
passage of the river. On the 18th ])reparations were made to harass him, and 
General Arnold was sent out with fifteen hundred men to endeavor to stop the 
repair of the bridges. After some light skirmi.shiug Arnold fell back, and Bur- 
24 



186 Centennial Celebrations. 

CToyne moved forward as far as Wilbur's Basin, about two miles from the Ameri- 
can position. He there established his camp, which he fortified with iutrench- 
ments and redoubts, his left on the river, his right extending at right angles to it 
across the low ground about six hundred yards, to a range of steep and lofty 
heights ; a creek or gully in his front, made by a rivulet which issued from a great 
ravine formed by the hills, known as the North Kavine. 

On the morning of the 19th, Burgoyne, after a careful reconnoitering of the 
passages of the great ravine and the road around its head, leading to the extreme 
left of the American camp, advanced to the attack in three di\'isions. Fraser on 
tlie right, with the light infantry, sustained by Breyman's German rUlemen, and 
covered on the flanks by Canadians, Provincials and Indians, made a wide circuit 
to the west in order to pass the ravine -ndthout quitting the heights, and afterward 
to cover the march of the line to the right. The center, commanded by Burgoyne 
in person, passed the ravine in a direct line south, and formed in order of battle 
as fast as they gained the summit, where they waited to give time for Fraser to 
make the circuit. The left wing, led by Eiedescl and Phillips, and composed of 
the Hessian troops and the artillery, moved along the river road and meadows in 
two columns. Their advance was delayed by the repair of the bridges. The 
Forty-seventh Regiment were charged -with the guard of the batteaux containing 
the stores of the army. Burgoyne's purpose was himself to attack the left of the 
American lines in front and engage their attention until Fraser, moving over the 
table land, should turn the extreme left of the American position and reach their 
rear. Riedesel and Phillips were to change direction at the southern end of the 
ravine and march west to connect -with the British center. When, between one 
and two o'clock, the columns had reached their positions they moved at signal 
guns. From the conformation of the ground this was the only practicable man- 
ner by which Burgoyne could possibly advance, the river road being covered by 
the American artillery. 

Beyond the great North Ravine in front of the British position, and half way 
between it and the ground fortified by the Americans, there was another deep 
ravine called the Middle Ravine, through which Mill creek stUl runs, and directly 
in front of the American camp and covered by its guns was another ravine of lesser 
extent, but still a formidable obstruction to the advance of an enemy. The wliole 
country, with the exception of a few cleared patches, was heavily wooded, the 
ravines as well as the upper table lands. On the high ground (Bemus Heiglits) 
south was the American intrenched line, extending eastwardly to the river bank 
and westwardly to the extremity of the hill where a redoubt was begun. Beyond 
it felled trees obstructed the passage of the gullies between the flank defenses on 
the left and the neighboring hills. The lines, which were about a mile in extent, 
inclosed what is still known as Neilson's Farm. The hills on the east of the 
Hudson commanded a general view of Burgoyne's camp. 

On the morning of tlie 19th, Gates was informed by Lieutenant-Colonel Col- 
burn, of the New Hampshire line, who had been sent out the day before, to 
observe the movements of the enemy, that the British had struck their tents and 
crossed the gully at the gorge of the great ravine, and were ascending the heights 
toward the American left. Arnold, who commanded the left wing, and was at 
this time at head-quarters, suggested a movement to attack. Colonel Morgan, 
with his rifle corps, supported by Major Dearborn's light infantry, was immediately 
ordered out to observe their direction and harass their advance. About half-past 
twelve a report of small arms announced that Jlorgan's men had struck the 



Bkmus Hkigh'i's. 187 

encmj'. Tlicy hail fallen in with Burgoyne's pickets, who made tlie advance guard 
of tlie British line, and l\ad posted themselves in a cabin on Freeman's farm, 
which was one of the few cleared spots in tliat thickly wooded country. They 
were quickly dislodged by >[orgun, wlio, pursuing hotly, fell on the main body, 
whicli Burgoync had formed into line in the tirst opening in the woods, by whom 
they were instantly routed, witli loss of several officers and men. Wilkinson, wlio 
witnessed the rally of the riflemen, hurried to Gates, who at once gave directions 
for their support. Cilloy'a and Scammers legiments of New Hampshire (part of 
General Poor's brigade of Continental regulars) were ordered to advance through 
the woods and take ground on the left of Morgan, and the action was renewed 
about one o'clock. 

This movement would have turned the British right but for the disposition 
of General Fraser, wlio had promptly arrived at his appointed post and taken 
an advantageous position on a height, whicli covered the British right. !Meet- 
ing this obstacle the Americans counter-marched, and pushed through the 
woods toward the left of Burgoyne's column. To their support the 
five remaining regiments of Poor's brigade, consisting of Hale's, of New 
Hampshire, Van Cortlandt's and Henry Livingston's, of New York, and 
Cook's and Latimor's, of the Connecticut Militia, were successively led to the field 
at the points of the action where greatest pressure was perceived. About three 
o'clock the action became general. Burgoyne's division was vigorously attacked 
and .suffered severely. One regiment of grenadiers and part of the light infantry 
under Lord Balcarras from Fraser's division participated at times in the action, but 
it was not thought advisable to weaken Fraser's force on the heights, except par- 
tially and occasionally. Major-General Phillips, hearing the firing, made his way 
at once through the woods to Burgoyne's support, bringing with him four pieces 
of artillery, a difficult task, considering the nature of the ground, and entered the 
action at a critical time. Riedesel also got up with part of the left wing before 
the close of the battle. The Americans, feeling the pressiu-e of this re-enforcement, 
Gates ordered out the whole of Learned's brigade, consisting of Bailey's, "Wes- 
son's, and Jackson's regiments, of the Massachusetts line, and James Livingston's, 
of New York, and also Marshall's regiment, of the Massachusetts line. They were 
but slightly engaged. Darkness ended the contest, the Americans only withdraw- 
ing when objects became undistinguishable. The number engaged on each side 
was not far from equal. The American force was about 3,000, and Burgoj'ne 
stated his to be about 3,500. The mode of fighting of tlie Americans more tlian 
equaled this discrepancy. The field of action was such that, although the com- 
batants clianged ground a dozen times in the course of the day, the contest termi- 
nated with each body in its original position. The British were formed on an emi- 
nence in a thin pine wood, having before it Freeman's farm, an oblong field, stretch- 
ing from its center toward its right, tlie ground in front sloping gently down to 
the verge of the field, which was l>ordered on the opposite side by a close wood, 
held by the Americans. The sanguinary scene lay in the cleared ground between 
the eminence occupied by the enemy and the wood just mentioned. The fire of 
the American marksmen from the wood was too deadly to be withstood by the 
British in line, and when they gave way and broke, the Americans, making for 
their center, pursued them to the eminence, where, having their flanks protected, 
they rallied, and charging in turn drove tlie .Vmericans back into the wood, whence 
adreadful fire would again force them to fall back, and in this manner did the bat- 



188 ' Centennial Celebrations. 

tie fluctuate, like the waves of a stormy sea, with alternate advantage, for foul 
hours without one moment's intermission ; the British artillery fell into the hands 
of the Americans at every charge, but they could neither turn the pieces on the 
enemy nor bring them o3; the wood prevented the last, and the wan|; of a match 
the first, as the linstock was invariably carried oH, and the rapidity of the transi- 
tions would not allow time to provide one. The slaughter of the artillery was 
remarkable, the captain and twenty-six men out of forty-eight being killed or 
wounded. Such is Wilkinson's concise and picturesque account of -this action, 
which he considered one of the longest, warmest, and most obstinate battles fought 
in America. Here was seen the superiority of the American rifle over the British 
bayonet, on which Burgoyne so confidently relied. In his report to Congress, 
Gates accorded the glory of the action entirely to the valor of the rifle regiment 
and corps of light infantry under the command of Colonel Morgan. The British 
were surprised at the courage and obstinacy with which the Americans fought, 
and, as one who was present has recorded, found to their dismay that they were not 
that contemptible enemy they had been hitherto imagined, incapable of standing a 
regular engagement, and willing only to fight behind strong and powerful works. 

The battle on the part of the Americans was essentially a soldiers' battle. While 
Burgoyne led his men in person, exjjosing himself with great bravery, directing 
the movements of the British line, the Americans had no general officer in the field 
until the evening, wlien General Learned was ordered out. The battle was fought 
by the general concert and zealous co-operation of the corps engaged, and sus- 
tained more by individual courage than military discipline, as is shown by the loss 
of the militia in comparison with that of the regular troops. 

During the action Gates and Arnold remained in front of tlie center of the 
camp. This is no matter for comment or surprise, as it was neither the policy nor 
the purpose of Gates to bring on a general engagement, which might have 
involved his forces to such an extent as to leave his riglit exposed and uncover the 
river road. Tlie intrenclimeuts were not half completed, those on the left hardly 
begun. Moreover, the militia were every day arriving. Eacli day's delay 
increased his own chances of success while diminishing those of the enemy. 

The loss of the Americans, killed, wounded and missing, was three hundred 
and twenty-one ; that of the British, six hundred — a disparity more remark-able, 
as the ground did not admit of the use of artillery by the Americans. Both sides 
claimed the victory ; in reality it was a drawn battle. The British held the strong 
position Fraser had occupied in the morning, which, however. Gates had no desire 
of disputing, as his army was acting on the defensive. The Americans, on the 
other hand, had marched out from their camp, mot the enemy more than half 
way, and after inflicting upon them a stunning blow, returned to their intrench- 
ments. Far more imjiortant than any physical advantage was the effect on the 
morale of the two armies. The patriots had met the main body of the invading 
army on equal terms, while the invaders had learned to their bitter cost the terrors 
of a warfare in which their discipline was of little avail. 

The British lay on their arms the night of the battle, and the next day, the 
SOtli, took a position just out of reach of the cannon of the American camp, 
where they fortified, and at the same time extended their left to the brow of the 
heights, so as to cover the meadows on tlie river. A bridge of boats was thrown 
over the Hudson, and a work erected on the east side of the river. The Ameri- 
cans on tlieir side worked diligently in completing the defenses of their extremely 
strong position. The mirning was foggy, and there was considerable alarm in the 



Bemus Heights. 189 

American camp, causpcl by the storj' of a descrtLT, tliat an attack was intended. 
It has been since stated that Uiirgoync really directed a movement, but was dis- 
suaded by General Eraser, who, because of the fatigue of his men, begged for a 
day's delay. Meanwhile a spy from Clinton brought a letter to Burgoyne, with 
advice of his intended expedition against the Highlands, which determined him 
to postpone the attack and await events. If such were the case, this was another 
and fatal error of Burgoyne. His general orders, however, of the 20th, ordering 
the advance of the army at three o'clock, seem inconsistent with the story, and 
there is no confirmation of it in his own narrative ; but, on the contrary, he admits 
that he was persuaded that the American camp was strongly fortified. On the 
22d, Gates learned from General Lincoln of Colonel Brown's success at Ticon- 
deroga. His reply to Lincoln shows that at this time he did not feel him.self 
strong enough to prevent Burgoyne's retreat. He therefore urged the destruction 
of all buildings, batteau.x, etc., on the line which should afford him shelter, that, 
to use l\is own words, " he may have no resting place until he reaches Canada." 
The next morning he adds a postscript, to the effect that, by his scouts, it was 
"past a doubt that the enemy's army remain in their camp, that their advance 
was within one mile of his own, and urged the immediate forwarding of the 
militia." He is satisfied, he adds, "that New York, and not Ticonderoga, is 
General Burgoyne's object." 

On the 23d, in consequence of a direction in general orders thut Morgan's inde- 
pendent corps was responsible to head-quarters only, a difference which had been 
long brewing between Gates and Arnold ended in a public dispute. High words 
passed between them. Arnold was excluded from head-quarters, and demanded 
permission to go to Philadelphia to report to Congress, a request of which Gates 
took instant advantage. Suspended from command at his own desire, Arnold 
found too late the unfortunate jjosition in which he would place his reputation by 
leaving the army at this critical jimcture. He changed his mind and remained in 
camp, murnniring discontent and spreading sedition by the intemperance of his 
conduct and language. Gales took Arnold's division under his own command, 
and assigned Lincoln, who came in the same day, to the command of the right 
wing. 

With the militia wlio flocked to Gates' camp came a band of Oneida and Tus- 
carora Indians, who had been jicrsuaded by the influence of Schuyler, then active 
as Indian commissioner, to join the army. They were objects of such curiosity 
that it became necessary to forbid the soldiers from flocking to their encampment. 
These Indians were, however, a terror to the enemy. Gates' orders distinguished 
them from Burgoyne's savages by a red woolen cap. 

On the '?<1 October, Burgoyne was compelled to diminish the soldiers' nations, the 
foraging parties meeting but litth^ success, and requiring heavy covering parties. 
The Americans were constantly in the field, harassing the advanced pickets, and 
night alarms prevented the British from quitting their clothes and deprived them 
of rest. The main bodies of both armies lay in quiet, while the woods resounded 
to the stroke of the axe, felling trees for the fortifications. Burgoyne sent word 
to Clinton on the 2;5d September, that he would await news from him until the 
12th October. 

Iliedcsel, in his memoirs of the camp.aign, says that the situation becoming 
daily more critical and the iiicniy too strong, both in numbers and position, to be 
attacked, Burgoyne on the 4th called Generals Phillips, Riedesel and Fniser, to 
consult with them as to what measures to adopt. He proposed to leave the boata 



190 Centennial Celebrations. 

and stores under strong guard, and turning the left wing of Gates, to attempt an 
attack ; uo decision was arrived at. A second conference was held on the even- 
in'T of tlie Otli, when Riedesel recommended an immediate attack or a return to 
Batten-Kill. Fraser approved of this plan. Phillips declined to express an 
opinion. Burgoyne terminated the discussion by declaring that he would make a 
reconnaissance of the left wing of the Americans on the 7th, and if there were 
any prospect of success he would attack on tlie 8th or return to a position at Free- 
man's Farm, and on the 11th begin a retreat to the rear of Batten-Kill. 

Just before noon on the Ttli Burgoyne marched out of camp with fifteen hun- 
dred men and ten pieces of artillery, destined for the reccmnaissance, and also to 
cover a foraging party to relieve their immediate distress. The troops were 
formed into three columns, under Phillips, Riedesel and Fraser, within three- 
quarters of a mile of the American left. The rangers, Indians and provincials, 
were ordered to pass through the woods and gain the rear of the camp. The for- 
ao-ino- party entered a field and began to cut the wheat in sight of the American 
outposts, wlien the alarm was given and the Americans beat to arms. Wilkinson 
went to the front to see the cause, and observed the foragers at work, the cover- 
ino' party, and the officers with their glasses endeavoring to reconnoitre the 
American left. He reported their positicm to Gates, and gave as his opinion that 
they were incUned to offer battle. "I would indulge them," he added, where- 
upon Gates replied: "Well, then, order on Morgan to begin the game." A plan 
was concerted, with the approx-al of Gates, for Morgan to make a detour and gain 
a height on the right of the enemy, time enough for wliich was allowed him 
before Poor's brigade were sent to attack the left. The British generals were still 
consulting as to the best mode of pursuing the reconnaissance when the New 
Hampshire and New York troops of Poor's brigade fell upon the British left, 
where the grenadiers under Major Ackland were posted, with impetuous fury and 
extended the attack to the front of the Germans. At this time Morgan descended 
the hill, and striking the Ught infantry on the right endeavored to turn their flank. 
Seeing his danger of being enveloped, Burgoyne ordered a second position to be 
taken by the light infantry, to secure t!ie return of his troops to camp. Mean- 
while Poor's brigade pressed the left with ardor and compelled them to give way. 
Fraser, with part of his light infantry, moved rapidly to prevent an entire rout, 
and fell mortally wounded. Phillips and Riedesel were then ordered to cover a 
general retreat, which was effected in good order, though hard pressed, the 
enemy leaving eight pieces of cannon in the hands of the Americans, most of 
their artillerymen being killed or wounded. 

Hardly had the British entered their camp wlien it was stormed with great 
fury in the face of a severe fire of grape and musketry. The British intrench- 
ments were stoutly defended by Balcarras and no impression was made. The 
German intrenched camp of Brcyman, with the provincials, was carried by 
Learned, who appeared on the ground with his fresh brigade at sunset, and an 
opening was thus made in the right and roar whicli exposed the whole British 
camp, but the darkness of the night, and the fatigue and disorder of the men, 
prevented advantage being taken of this situation. 

In the night Burgoyne broke up his camp and retired to his original position, 
which he had fortified behind the Groat Ravine. Thus closed the second battle 
of Saratoga, known as the Battle of Bemus Heights. The loss of the British was 
estimated at six Inmdred killed, wounded and taken prisoners, that of the Ameri- 
cans did not exceed one hundred and fift}' killed and wounded. Burgoyne lo.st 



Bemus Heights. 191 

the flower of liis officers. Besides General Fraser and Sir Francis Clark, his 
principal aide, who were mortally wounded, and Brej'man who was killed, Majors 
Ackland and Williams wore taken prisoners, the former wounded. On th(! 
American side Arnold, who behaved with the most desperate valor, exposing him- 
self in a frantic manner and leading the troops without authority, just as the vic- 
tory w:us won received a ball which fractured his leg and killed his horse; and 
General Lincoln, while on his way to order a cannonade on the enemy's eamp, 
received a niusket-ball in the leg which shattered the bone. "With regard to the 
conduct of this battle, much has been said. Gates has been blamed for not leav- 
ing his camp, and Arnold has been lauded as the hero of the day. These criti- 
cisms are equally unjust. Up to sunset when Learned's corps was sent forward to 
finish the action, there was only one brigade in the field. Gates' place was with 
the center and right, where the militia were posted, and the security of his camp 
and the jjrotection of the road to Albany his one true concern. Arnold's reckless 
daring no doubt encouraged and inspired the troops, but there is no evidence of 
any generalship on his part. Ilad the day resulted differently, he would have been 
deservedly cashiered. Gates, in his report to Congress of the 12th, wnth great 
magnanimity, mentioned his gallantry and woimd while forcing the enemy's 
breastworks. AVliile commending all the troops engaged for their spirit, he gave 
especial praise to Jlorgan's riflemen and Dearborn's light infantry. 

When Burgoyno fell back to his original position, he was in hopes that this 
change of front would induce Gates to form a new disposition, and perhaps attack 
him in his lines, where his s\iperior artillery would have given him the advantage. 
During the 8th, he repeatedly offered battle to the American right, but Gates was 
too thorough a soldier to be tempted in this manner. His plans were more com- 
prehensive. On the evening of the 7th he ordered General Fellows, who was at 
Tift's Mill with thirteen hundred men, to move to a position to prevent the 
recrossing of the Hudson at the Saratoga Ford. On the morning of the 8th Fel- 
lows took possession of the Saratoga barracks and began to throw up intreneh- 
ments, and sent an express to Bennington to hurry up troops to his assistance. 
Gates at once took possession of the abandoned camp at Freeman's Farm. 

Burgoyne receiving intelligence of this movement in his rear, began his retreat 
at nine o'clock at night, leaving his sick and woiuided. A heavy rain causing 
him to delay at Dovogat, he only reached Saratoga on the night of the Oth, and 
his artillery could not pass the ford of the Fishkill till the morning of the 10th. On 
the approach of the advance guard. Fellows, who had received notice of the 
retreat, crossed to the east side of the Hudson, where he was joined by the 
militia from Bennington, the rear of which arrived as Bm-goyne's front reached 
Saratoga. General Bayley, who cnninianded the militia column, had posted a 
force of one thousand men to guanl an intermediate ford, and also detached one 
thousand men to Fort Edward, to the command of which, at the request of 
Bayley, Stark was assigned on the 14th. The main body of Gates' army, having 
l)repared their provisions and equipped themselves, started in pursuit about noon. 
In the aft(Tnoon of tlu' 10th at four o'clock the advance reached Saratoga, and 
found Burgoyne encamped on the height beyond the Fishkill. Gates' forces look 
a position in the wood, on the Saratoga heights, their right resting on the brow 
of th(^ hill, about a mile in the rear of the Fishkill. 

On the 11th, Morgan was ordered to cross the Fishkill and fall upon the enemy's 
rear; there was a heavy fog. Morgan str\ick their pickets and concluded that 
Burgoyne had not retired as was supposed. Patterson's and Learned's brigades 



1 92 Centennial Celebrations. 

were ordered to his support, and a vigorous cannonade Tvas opened on the front 
and rear. Twelve hundred men of Patterson's corps had hardly crossed the creek 
when the fog lifted and the whole British army was discovered in line of battle. 
The Americans feU back over the creek in disorder. Learnedjs corps was halted 
and the two brigades retired to a point a half mile distant, where they threw up 
intrenchments, which they held. The Americans succeeded in destroying a large 
number of batteaux and stores. 

The American artillery, which had taken no active part in the earlier battles, 
now came into play ; the passages of the river were covered by an incessant 
fire, every attempt to move the batteaux was instantly arrested, and as Bur- 
goyne himself stated, no part of his position was secure from the guns. 

On the 13th a council of war was called by Burgoyne, and a retreat, leaving 
stores and baggage, was agreed upon, but the scouts reporting that no movement 
could be made without immmediate discovery, the project was abandoned. On 
the 13th, only three days' stores remaining, a second council was held to which 
all field ofiicers and captains commanding corps were invited. They decided that 
the situation justified capitulation upon honorable terms. Negotiations were 
opened on the 14th with General Gates, and on the 16th the convention was 
signed. On the 17th October, the British army laid down its arms on the green 
in front of old Fort Hardy, on the north bank of the Fishkill, in the presence of 
Wilkinson, Gates' adjutant, and Burgoyne, accompanied by Riedesel and Phillips, 
rode to the American head-quarters. They were met by General Gates, followed 
by his suite, and accompanied by General Schuyler, who had come up from 
Albany for the occasion. Tlie British troops were then marched past in view of 
the American army, whose moderation in the hour of triumph is one of the most 
pleasing incidents of this historic scene. Burgoyne completed the formality of 
surrender by the tender of his sword. 

The total force surrendered, as appears by the official return, signed by General 
Burgoyne, and preserved among the Gates papers in the New York Historical 
Society, was 5,791, of which 3,379 were English and provincials and 3,413 Ger- 
man auxiliaries, together with a train of artillery of twenty-seven pieces. 

The strength of the American army, rank and file, at Saratoga on the day of 
surrender, appears from the same documents to have been 11,098, of which 7,716 
of the Continental line [regulars], and 3,382 militia. In reviewing the whole 
campaign it will be observed how little real reliance could be placed on the mili- 
tia, whose short terms of service were a source of perpetual anxiety to the Gen- 
eral in command. No better or more appropriate illustration of this can be given 
than tlie action of the militia of the Hampshire Grants, whom General Gates had 
ordered to his support. The arrival in camp, on the 18th September, of these 
victors of Bennington, under General Stark, the hero of that battle, animated the 
whole army, who were aware that they were on the eve of an engagement, but to 
the mortification and disgust of Gates, their term of service expiring the same 
day, they marched home from the camp without unpacking their baggage, and as 
Wilkinson asserts, without any effort to induce them to remain on the part of 
their officers. It is not to be denied that the militia did occasional noteworthy 
service, but the brunt of the engagements fell upon the regular Continental 
troops, who before the close of the war became in every way the equal of their 
British foes 

The series of engagements known as the battle of Saratoga has been styled one 
of the fifteen decisive battles of the world. Its consequences were of such vast 



Bemus Heights. 193 

importance as to entitle it to this distinction. The long cherished plan of the 
British Ministry, pursued tlirougli two campaigns with persevering obstinacy, was 
finally defeated. The open alliance of France was secured; the United States of 
America were recognized by the continental powers. The news of the victory 
spread rapi ily over the land, carrying joy to the hearts of the patriots. Wash- 
ington viewed it as a signal stroke of Pro\ddcnce. Congress voted the thanks of 
the nation to General Gates and his army, and a gold medal was struck and pre- 
sented to him in commemoration of the event. 

The last days of a century are closing upon these memorable scenes. How 
long will it be ere the government of this Empire State shall erect a monument 
to the gallant men who fought and fell upon these fields and here secured her 
liberty and renown? 

"Wlien Mr. Stevens had finished,, the invited guests proceeded to the 
spot where, on the 19th of September, 1777, Gates ate his breakfast, 
and enjoyed a collation. 

At four o'clock the troops were formed in line. The ground was 
not as even as it might be desired, but the movements were all executed 
in a most praiseworthy manner. After the parade the soldiers passed 
in review before Lieutenant-Governor Doesheimek and General Cabe 
and stail. 

The sham battle took place immediately afterward. This was, in 
the eyes of a great number of people, the chief attraction of the day. 
In the woods to the north of the grand stand a gun was placed under 
Lieutenant Mykr, of the Eleventh Infantry, United States army. A 
detachntent of the Tibbits Corps was also lodged in the woods. 

The Continental cavalry of Saratoga, under the command of General 
GoLDWiN, together with Lieutenant Myee and the Tibbits veterans, 
represented the British force. It was a small representation, but as 
the British were supposed to be concealed in the woods, it answered 
all purpcses. Tbe Americans M^ere on open ground. The other troops 
of the Tentli Brigade were constituted the colonial forces. The Chad- 
wick Guards of Cohoes were held as reserve. General Care was sup- 
posed ti) personate General Gates and Colonel Chamberlain repre- 
sented Benedict Arnold. Lieutenant Goldman, of the Fiftli United 
States Cavalry, was one of the aids of General Alden, who directed 
the movements. The British cannon first opened fire, M'hich was 
returned on the right and left of the American lines. The British 
cannon from its ambuscade kept up the dialogue. Part of the 
American corps advanced, and dropping on the ground fired a volley 



194 Centennial Celebrations. 

into the woods. Charges, i-etreats and adxances were repeatedly made. 
Tlie Amei-icans at times rushed into the woods with wild cheers and 
retreated in disorder. The line being reformed, another charge was 
made, supported by movements in every direction. All the while the 
artillery duel continued. One thing noticeable was the precision with 
which the volleys of musketry were fired. Finally the whole American 
force made a grand charge, the enemy's cannon was silenced and cap- 
tured, the cavalry retreated in disorder, and victory belonged to the 
Americans. 

The battle was one of the best of the sort ever seen ; the move- 
ments and the general plan on which it was fought, brought to tlie 
minds of many the real battles of whicli more than a decade ago they 
were component parts. 



APPENDIX. 



Note 1. — The orthography used by Lasting and Stone in their histories is Benii's 
and most of the orators of the various centennial celebrations have spelled the name 
that way. Judge GEORGE G. Scott, of Ballston Spa, however, has made research into 
the orthography of the name, and is an authority upon the subject. He writes 
"'John Bem!is' appears upon the assessment roll of Stillwater in 1789, also in our 
early coimty records. Sylvester, in his history of Saratoga County, whenever the 
name occurs, adopts the same orthography." 

Note 3. — The name Mechanicville is here spelled without the " s," also upon the 
suggestion of Judge ScoiT who cites the act of incorporation as a village (chap. 786, 
Laws of 1870), and recent Red Books, in the list of incorporated villages, as authority 
therefor. This orthography is followed, although laws relative to the same previous 
to and since the act of incorporation spell the name with the "s." 



Sauiil ^iXIiams* 




OLD STONE FOET AT SCHOHARIE. 
Mom-jrrusrj. to David VviUiaiT-uS 



DAVID WILLIAMS. 



Ceremonies at the Old Fort in Schoiiaeie. 



Tlie ceremony of laying the comer stone of the monument to David 
Williains, one of the captors of Andre, the British spy, took place at 
the Old Fort in Schoharie, on September 23, 1876. Tlie follomng 
description of the Old Fort, with a short account of its history, is from 
the pen of Dr. Daniel Knower : 

" On the 1st of June, 1774, the port of Boston was blockaded. The 
people of this valley contributed 525 bushels of wheat for their relief. 
In October, 1780, a strong force of Indians, Tories and soldiers, under 
the command of Sir John JohnSon, the celebrated Indian chief Brant 
and the Seneca chief Corn Planter, attacked this place. The inhabit- 
ants fled to the Fort. The Fort was attacked, biit the enemy were 
repulsed by a shower of grape-shot and musket balls from the garrison, 
and retreated. Only two persons in the Fort were killed, but one hun- 
dred of the defenseless inhabitants outside the Fort were murdered by 
the hostiles on that day. Not a house, bam or gi-ain-stack known to 
belong to a Whig wiis left standing; and it was estimated that 100,000 
bushels of grain were destroyed. The houses and other property of the 
Tories were spared, but the exasperated Whigs set them on fire as soon 
as the enemy had gone, and all shared a common fate. The Fort is 
now in a perfect state of preservation, with the marks of the cannon 
balls of that day's attack on it. The Legislature of this State donated 
it to the supervisors of the county on condition that they keej) it in 
repair." 

THE PROCEEDINCIS. 

The proceedings in Schoharie on the occasion of laying the corner 
stone are well described in the following extracts from the local press : 



198 Centennial Celebrations. 

" Saturday dawned cloudy and cool, but not threatening. The streets 
were dry but not dusty, and the committee-men wearing purple and 
white ribbons were busily performing the various duties assigned to them 
before eight o'clock in the morning. People were coming in from every 
quarter at that early hour, and no one seemed to think that Old Probabil- 
ities, who announced rain, knew any thing about the weather. The cars 
from either direction were crowded inside, and even on their roofs. 

" At 10 A. M. the steady stream of incoming people was augmented by 
the arrival of the excursion trains from Albany and Troy, and the day 
was fairly begun. Tlie Committee of Reception was on hand at the 
depot with carriages for the orator and notables, and mounted marshals 
were also in attendance. As soon as the ti-ain stopped, our visitors from 
Albany and Troy disembarked. First came the Albany Zouave Cadets, 
Co. A, 10th Regiment, in command of Captain John H. Reynolds, 
and headed by Austin's Band ; then came the carriages with Hon. 
Chaeles Holmes, president of the day ; the orator of the day, Geen- 
viLLE Teemain, Esq., of Albany ; the poet of the day, Alfeed B. 
Stkeet, of Albany ; Daniel Knowee, Ralph Beewstee, commission- 
ers ; Several descendants of David Williams ; Senator "W. C. L/Vmont ; 
J. R. SraiMS, historian of Schoharie county ; Hon. S. L. Mayham, N. 
La F. Bachman, Esq., Hon. S. H. Sweet, of Albany, Col. C. C. Kbo- 
MEE, Prof. S. SiAs, Chaeles Couetee, Esq., A.. A. Hunt, Esq., Hon. 
John Westovee, Dr. W. T. Lamont and many others. The carriages 
were followed by " I^iagara " Engine and "Eagle" Hose Compan- 
ies of Schoharie, headed by the Cobleskill Cornet Band, all of them 
making a fine appearance in their handsome uniform. Then came the 
Tibbitts Corps of Yeterans from Troy, with their tall shakos, and headed 
by Doring's Band. These all moved up to Knower avenue, where the 
procession was formed and the citizens in carriages brought up the rear 
of the order above mentioned. 

"The line of march was up Knower avenue to Bridge street, down 
Bridge street to Main street, down Main street to the Old Stone Fort, 
where the exercises of laying the corner stone were to take place, 
When the head of the line reached the Stone Fort, the road was full 
of carriages the entire mile between it and the village, and others were 
still coming, and tlie sidewalks were crowded the entire distance with 
people on their way to the Fort. Only about one-half of the people 
could get inside the grounds and in the street which passes by the 
grounds surrounding the Stone Fort, and these were estimated by com- 
petent judges to number 5,000. We do not doubt that there were 
10,000 people in the village that day. As soon as possible order was 
restored and Hon. Chas. Holmes, president of the day, announced the 
foUowing programme : 



David AVilliams. 199 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 

Singing of Whitticr's Hymn by tlie Schoharie ^Musical Association. 

Prayer by Rev. William H. Handy. 

Singing of the •' Star Spanglnrl Banner " by the Schoharie .Musical Association. 

Oration by Grenville Tremain, of Albany. 

Music by Boring's Band. 

I'oeni, written by Alfred B. Street, of Albany, and read by N. La F. Bach.man, 

of Schoharie. 

Singing of " America " by tlie Schoharie Miisical Association. 

Historical Address by Dr. Knower, of Schoharie. 

Music by Austin's Band. 

" Upon the speaker's stand, among others, were two grandsons of 
David Williams, of the same name, and a number of his descendants." 



ADDEESS BY GRENVILLE TEEMATN. 

Mr. President and Fellow Citizens- 

In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty gen- 
erations lie buried, in the tender and solemn gloom of that venerable abbey 
wherein is gathered the honored dust of England's bravest and best, surrounded 
by " royal sarcophagus and carved shrine, and by fading banners which tell of 
the knights of former time; where the Chathams and Mansficlds repose, and 
where orators and poets lie," is a conspicuous monument, bearing this inscrip- 
tion : 

Sacred to the memory op M.wor John Andre, who, raised by ms merit 
at an early period op his life to the rank of Ad.jutant-General op the 
British forces in Americ.\ and employed in an important but hazardous 
enterprise, fell a sacrifice to his zeal for his klng and country. 

By command of England's king, George the Third, was this monument raised 

in Westminster Abbey. The sculptor, true to the historical fact, has pictured 

and perpetuated the singular sense of pain and grief entertained by those who 

were the foes of him whose name is thus prominently carved in this temple of 

fame. Contemplating, as it were, with bowed head this rare homage of a great 

nation to her dead, the spectator is moved to inquire more minutely into the 

events of this life so grandly immortalized. What has won so much in a career 

of only twenty-nine years? lu this sacred mausoleum of England's mighty dead, 

where, 

Through long-drawn iiisle and fretted vault, 

swept memories of those who have enriched the language, ennobled the human 
intellect, elevated humanitj', or perpetuated in immortal verse the emotions and 
passions of men, on every side are names, the very utterance of which is an era, 
an army, an anthem, an empire. To associate with these mighty dead, how 
incalculable the honor ! How indelible the record here engraven ! How immor- 
tal the fame here perpetuated ! 

And yet this man thus wept by his foes and immortalized by his country was 



200 Centennial Celebrations. 

an enemy to American liberty, a foe to republicanism, -whose death was ignoble, 
and whose ashes reposed for forty years under the free soil of our own land, 
marked only by a tree whose fruit never blossomed.*' That monument to the 
memory of John Andre would never have been raised, no such inscription would 
ever have been written, and that grim irony would not have marred the greatness 
of AVestminster Abbey, but for the critical act, the crucial conduct and the incor- 
ruptible honor of him whose name is upon every lip and in every heart here 
to-day. 

The minute details of the story and the life that are brought to mind by the 
ceremonies of this day will be wrought out by another and more competent hand. 
The expression of the thoughts and emotions suggested by the accepted facts 
connected with the memorable event of September 23, 1780, and a mere outline of 
the occurrence, are more appropriately within the province of the duty assigned 
to me. In the contemplation of the performance of that duty I am sustained, 
buoyed and strengthened by a belief in the leniency of judgment and the charitable 
consideration of those whom I address. 

To us, living when the nation's life has spanned a century, when her greatness 
and her power are recognized in every clime and upon every sea, when the rich 
blessings of civil and religious liberty accompany every heart-throb and every 
breath — to us the page that records the fidelity and the transcendent honor of 
David Williams, John Paulding and Isaac Van Wart, is serried ■ndth lines of the 
deepest interest, and glorious with letters that can never fade. 

We open to-day the book that perpetuates the history of revolutionary times, 
that tells how our country was baptized with fire and blood ; how, through 
toils, and labors, and sacrifices, and sorrows and prayers, this last hope of repub- 
licanism arose ; and we know that the ' ' red rain of her slaughtered sires has but 
watered the earth for the harvest of her gallant sons." We turn to the chapter 
blackened by the only traitor that disgraced the revolutionary period, to find that 
his treachery was defeated, and the infant nation saved by the providential pres- 
ence and the memorable act of him to whom we this day erect with pageant and 
with pride this monumental tribute. 

That Andre's was an important but hazardous enterprise is now more fully 
appreciated than even when the stirring events of that period were being enacted 
— nay, than dm-ing the first half century of the nation's life. The true nature of 
that enterprise as well, thanks to the unerring adjustment of time, has become 
fixed and certain wherever intelligence and judicial fairness prevail over passion 
or sentimentality. I would not if I could, and certainly I could not if I would, 
mar the charm of that picture which the character and personality of Major Andre 
presents. Dissociated from the terrible consequences which would have resulted 
from a successful termination of that enterprise, and independent of the attempt 
made in certain quarters in England to cast a shade upon the spotless character of 
Washington, we cannot contemplate the fate of Andre, without emotions of the 
profoundest pity. Wherever loyalty and valor are respected, wherever steadfast- 
ness and manly devotion are admired, wherever youth, ambition, intelligence and 
beauty combined command interest and win affection, there will the character of 
Major Andre be cordially and rluly appreciated. But these very qualities of heart 
and mind were the underlying causes of his connection with the enterprise. Con- 
sidered wdth all the surrounding circumstances, however, I have no hesitation in 
saying that,in compai ison with the high-noon glory that surrounds the distinguished 
*For references by numbers see appendi!t at end of the David Williams proceedings. 



David Williams. 201 

SLTvico, loft J' fiimness and uiitainished honor of our own Natluin Ilale, the con^luct 
of Andre pales into a glimmering twilight. He who by corruption and bribery 
seeks profit and renown has no place beside him who for love of liberty consid- 
ers his own single life but an insignificant offering upon the altar of his country. 

The method of Andre's death was an inseparable accompaniment of tlie act and 
of the offense.- Tlie laws of war and of nations liave inexorably imposed the 
penalty, and its infamy cannot be lessened in the world's estimation by the fact 
that his brother was invested with the honors of knighthood.^ Vattel, the great 
expositor of the laws of nations and of war, while he recognizes such enterprises 
as not contrary to the external law of nations, denies that they are just and com- 
patible with the laws of a pure conscience, and says: "Seducing a subject to 
betray his country ; suborning a traitor to set fire to a magazine ; practicing on 
the fidelity of a governor — enticing him, persuading him to deliver up a place, 
is prompting such person to commit detestable crimes. Is it honest to incite our 
most inveterate enemy to be guilty of a crime? * * * It is a different thing 
merely to accept the offers of a traitor, but when we know ourselves able to suc- 
ceed without the assistance of traitors, it is noble to reject their offers with detes- 
tation." 

At this distance of time, then, we view the act of Andre with that calmness 
and repose of judgment that does not err, and which is not warped by 
" Titles blown from adulation . " 

This is the darker side of the picture essential to its completeness ; but there are 
lighter shades to attract the eye and warm the heart. Let us examine them. 

Stand with me ui)on that historic spot, hard by Tarrytown, m the county of 
Westchester, where the dark blow that was aimed at the life of the young nation 
was arrested. There the zealous Andre sees visions of future glory and honor, 
kingliest rewards, within his very grasp. There, as he rides along his solitary 
path beyond the American lines, and on the very verge of safety, he knows that 
his heel is upon the throat of American freedom and independence. Within 
sight the great artery of trade and commerce flows majestic to the sea, uncon- 
scious that on this hapless morning of September 21, 1780, its bosom is vexed by 
the Vulture, laden with the fate of nations and of centuries. The giant moun- 
tains, sentinels of the centuries, stand and see the beginning and the tragic end- 
ing of the hellish plot which includes the destinies of the nation, and the sacri- 
fice of the prccioiis life upon which those destinies hang. Standing at this point 
of observation, the magnitude of the service of David Williams is more fully 
seen, is more fully comprehended. In the rusty garb of a reduced gentleman the 
solitary horseman, as he approaches, is now the central figure of our view. And 
who is he? Major John Andre, adjutant-general of the British forces in America. 
He has left the " Mercuries reclining upon bales of goods, and the Genii playing 
with |)ens, ink and paper." Mercantile glories crowd no longer upon his fancy. 
An " imijcrlinent consciousness " has whispered in his ear that he is not of the right 
stuff for a merchant, and tlie picture of his beautiful and beloved Honora has lost 
the talismanic power to lighten toil and inspire industry.^ Accomplished in the 
lighter graces of music, poetry and painting, graceful and cultured in literary 
expression, fired with a zeal for glory: 

'■ Yearning tor the large excitement 

that the coming years would yield, 
Eager-hearted as a boy, 

when first he leaves his father's field," 
26 



202 Centennial Celebrations. 

he has tui'ncd his glowing nature toward the profession of his heart. lu the 
words of his biographer, few men were more capable than lie of winning a sol- 
dier's reward. A prisoner at the surrender of St. John's, we see him clinging 
to the picture his own hand had painted of the loved Honoia; promoted for 
merit and fidelity to a position far above his j'ears and experience, winning the 
confidence and affection of his chief, Sir Henry Clinton, he is now commissioned 
for a service of wliich the King of England did not hesitate to say that " the 
public never can be compensated for the vast advantages wliich must have fol- 
lowed from the success of his plan." 

Up to that critical moment, nine o'clock on the morning of the 33d of Sep- 
tember, there had been no special lack of discretion on Andre's part. He had 
been borne along by fates that wei'c propitious so far as human ken could see, 
though in fact perils were approaching from sources called accidental, perils whicli 
to him were entire!}' unforeseen. For more than a year he had, without exposure 
or suspicion, conducted a clandestine correspondence with the traitor Arnold. 
The treason had been hidden under the phrases of the mercantile profession. 
Arnold, under the feigned name of "Gustavus," had communicated much valu- 
able, and often highly important information to Andre whom he addressed as John 
Anderson. Sir Heniy Clinton, the commander of the British forces, had soon 
suspected the true rank and person of Gustavus. Several attempts at a personal 
interview had miscarried, but the infidelity of Arnold had never been suspected. 
He had by unportunity at last succeeded in obtaining from Washington command 
of West Point without causing the slightest shade of suspicion to cross the saga- 
cious mind of that watchful commander. There his plottings were renewed. 
Even the overture which had come in response to his communications, and borne 
by the ominous Vulture up the Hudson to within fourteen miles of Arnold's head- 
quarters, near West Point, had been shown to Washington in the presence of 
La Fayette, with a brazen boldness that extinguished all doubts of Arnold's 
honor. "I had no more suspicion of Arnold than I had of myself," said the 
chief in relating this. On the 30th, Andre had boarded the Vulture in the high- 
est spirits, confident of success. The details of that midnight voyage of twelve 
miles, from King's Ferry to Teller's Point, and back from the Vulture to Long 
Clove, are known to all. With oars carefully muffled in sheep-skins, the flag- 
boat, so called, beneath a serene and clear sky, approached in silence the place of 
meeting, where the arch-traitor was hid among the firs. 

From this point occur a series of trivial circumstances, insignificant in them- 
selves but yet big with fate. The refusal of the boatmen to return to the Vulture 
tliat night necessitated the journey to the Smith house, some three or four miles 
distant, the consequent disguise assumed by Andre to escape detection during the 
return by land, and as well the possession of the papers found under Andre's 
stockings, which led his captors to the knowledge of his true character. With- 
out that disguise and without those papers, while the conspiracy might not have 
been defeated, tlie life of Andre would have been saved. But the memorable act 
of Col. Livingston is still more remarkable. At daybreak, on the morning of tlie 
33d, the Vulture still lingered with impudent audacity in the vicinity of the 
American fortifications. Her presence had so outraged the spirit of Livingston 
and the troops that he applied, but without success, to Arnold for two heavy guns. 
Nothing daunted by the treasonable refusal of Arnold, he had carried a four- 
pounder to Gallows Point, a lesser promontory of Tellers, and with but a scant 
supply of powder, he commenced so active a cannonading upon her that she was 



David Williams. 203 

oblicred to drop clown tlic river beyond range.'' In this manner all means of access 
to hor by water was cut off from Andrr. But for the American grit and perse- 
verance of Livingston, Andn' would doubtless have found some means of again 
boardin" the Vulture, carrying with him the instruments for the destruction of 
West Point and her dependencies. Upon such apparently trivial and accidental 
incidents does the fate of nations frequently depend. 

From the window of Smitli's house Andre saw with impatience the Vulture with- 
draw, but he knew not that she carried with her all his hopes of future glory and 
renown. All that morning after Arnold's departure, which occurred at ten o'clock, 
he chafed witli impatience to depart. But the jealous, prying, gossip-loving 
guide, in whose care Andre liad been left, proved too timid, weak and procras- 
tinating for the part assigned him. Toward the last of that ill-omened Friday, 
the return was begun, with Andre's gpirits sunk deep in gloom and sadness. And 
well might they be. The bargain had been uuide by which, for gold, an officer, 
high in the esteem of Washington, had sold his birth-right and his honor. During 
that long night he liad been breathing the foul atmosphere where treason was 
hatclied, had been looking into a face wrinkled with perlidy, into the blood-shot 
eyes of a debauclicd and worthless traitor. And he, the soul of honor, "the pet 
of the Britisli army," had been bartering with devilish coolness for the soul of a 
fellow-man. Involved in that midnight conference were the lives of men who 
had never done him injury, and the happiness of innocent women and children 
who had never cro.ssed his path. He, the hero, who had been fired by a desire to 
win renown by heroic bravery and distinguished service for his country, was 
skulking inside the enemy's lines like a common thief in disguise, the companion 
of a petty tool and his negro, and with his stockings stuffed with an ill-gotten 
booty, bought with the price Of another's dishonor.'' Is it any wonder that his 
mind settled into gloomy forebodings ? 

He crossed King's Ferry at the northern e.Ktremity of Haverstraw bay and took 
his way, under the dictation of his over-cautious companion, northward, to dis- 
arm suspicion. Here another trivial circumstance interposed itself with unerring 
fatality. Smith, the willing tool of Arnold, insisted upon remaining over night 
on the way. Fatal error! In the darkness and silence of that night there were 
hidden forces at work, which would block the morrow's path with a wall more 
impregnable than Fort Putnam. The honor and incorruptibility of David 
Williams was a part of its masonry. 

All night the restless Andre tossed upon an uneasy bed, side bj' side with the 
miserable creature whose easy virtue had yielded to the persuasions of Arnold. 
Is it wonderful that both should have been robbed of sleep ? Is it strange that at 
daylight and without breakfast they should hasten on in the path that was to 
lead Andre to the feet of his sovereign, to receive a grateful country's homage 
and reward ? 

And now we approach the place and the act in commemoration of which, by 
the tardy favor and justice of our State, we are a.ssemblcd here to-day. 

The three captors of Major Andre, whose names have become renowned, would 
in all likeliliood havo remained imknown to future generations, had Smith, as he 
agreed, accompanied Andre to White Plains, below Tarrytown. But yielding to 
his pusillanimous fears, he refused to go further than Pines Bridge. 

From this point, then, oiu- solitary horseman approaches the place where we 
stan<l. To tlie west of the road was the river; to the east the Greenburgh Hills, 



204 Centennial Celebrations. 

in whose bosom lies tlie world-reuowned vale of Sleepy Hollow, with its old 
church founded by the PhUipse family, and the ancient bell with its legend Deus 
pro nobis, quis contra nos. In front of him as he passes, a few rough logs laid side 
by side furnish a passage over a rivulet, which rises in the neighboring swamp 
and finds its way westward into those broad waters of the Hudson known as the 
Tappan Zee. 

Here on the south and west side of the path, concealed among the bushes, are 
David Williams, the eldest of the party (he being about twenty-two years old), 
John Paulding and Isaac Van Wart, yeomen. Not freeholders under the rank of 
gentlemen, but American citizens of humble birth, two of whom had already 
risked their lives in the service of their country and in the cause of the colonies, 
against whom the breath of slander from sentimental or compassionate lips had 
not yet breathed a shade of suspicion; representatives of that " Peasant Patriot- 
ism of America — the conquering power of the revolution — the essential element 
then, as now, and evermore, of American greatness and American freedom !" 

Springing to their feet, with presented muskets, they bid the stranger stand 
and announce his destination. Surely the darling of the British army, who, by 
sagacity, prudence and bravery, has been elevated to the rank of adjutant-general 
of the British forces in America, is possessed of sufficient caution to disarm this 
bristling trio ! Not so. Although armed with Arnold's pass to guard him against 
the only real enemies he had cause to fear, and which has already put to sleep the 
awakened suspicions of the wary Captain Boyd, some overruling Providence leads 
him to make that fatal answer, " My lads, I hope yOu belong to our party." The 
reply comes quick, " What party is that?" " The lower party," he answered. 
" We do," is the reply. "Thank God, I am once more among friends," he cried, 
deceived by the rude simplicity of the men, and recognizing a British military 
coat upon Paulding's back, a coat in which (in lieu of his own, of which he had 
been despoiled) Paulding had escaped from the enemy, in whose hands he had 
fallen some five or six days before the capture of Andre. " I am glad to see you, 
I am a British officer ; I have been up in the country on particular business, and I 
hope you won't detain me a minute," confidently continued Andre. 

The long agony was over ! That mine which had been set for the overthrow of 
the citadel of American freedom and independence, whose train it had taken 
months to lay, was now exposed and harmless, unless 

" The jingling of tlie guinea 
That lielps the hurt that honor feels," 

can successfully assail the virtue of WUliams, Van Wart and Paulding. This vast 
assemblage, these ceremonies, the projected monument over the remains of David 
Williams, but above all that waving symbol of the power and greatness of this 
nation, tell with unmistakable and unanswerable emphasis of the incorruptible in- 
tegrity of these simple rustic men. 

The State of New Torkhas honored herself by making the appropriation nec- 
essary to commence this monument over the remains of the only one of that im- 
mortal three, ^v^lose grave remains to this day unhonored. In 1827 the city of 
New York erected a monument over the remains of Paulding near Peekskill, 
bearing the significant inscription : 

"On the morning of the 2.3d op September, 1780, accompanied by two 
tounq farmers of the county of westchester (whose names wh,1. one day 
be recorded on their own deserved monuments) he intercepted the 



Daviu AVilliams. 205 

Bkitish spt AndrIo. Pooh nt>isELF, he disdained to acquire TVEAi.rn by the 

SACRIFICE OF HIS COUNTRY. REJECTING THE TEMPTATION OP GREAT REWARDS, 
HE CONVEYED HIS PRISONER TO TUE AMERICAN CAMP; AND BV THIS ACT OF NOBLE 
SELF-DENIAL THE TREASON OF ARNOLD WAS DETECTED, THE DESIGNS OP THE ENEMY 
BAFFLED, WeST PoINT AND THE AMERICAN ARMY SAVED, AND THESE UNITED 

States, now, by the Grace of God, Free and Independent, rescued from 
most imminent peril." 

At Grcenburgli, near Tarrytown, on the spot where the remains of Isaac Van 
Wart lie buried, the citizens of tlie vicinity erected, in 1829, a suitable monument, 
with the fohowing inscription engraven thereon: 

"Fidelity. On the 23d of September, 1780, Isaac Van Wart, accompan- 
ied by John Paulding and D.wid Williams, all farmers of the county of 
Westchester, intercepted Major Andre on his return from the American 
lines in the character of a spy; and, xotwithst.\nding the large bribes 
offered tue.m for his release, nobly disdained to sacrifice their country 

FOR GOLD, secured AND CARRIED HIM TO THE COMM.VNDING OFFICER OF THE DIS- 
TRICT, WHEREBY THE DANGEROUS AND TRAITOROUS CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD WAS 
BROUGHT TO LIGHT, THE INSIDIOUS DESIGNS OF THE ENEMY BAFFLED, THE iVMERI- 
CAN ARMY SAVED, AND OUR BELOVED COUNTRY FREE." 

On the memorable site where the capture occurred, the young men of Westches- 
ter county, in 1853, built a cenotaph in lienor of the captors. How appropriate, 
then, that in this beautiful valley and in this county, where the survivor of the 
three lived for twenty-six years, and where he died and was buried, there should 
rise an enduring mark of the gratitude and appreciation of this people 1 

It docs not become the time nor the occasion to enter upon any extended dis- 
cussion of the mooted questions surrounding the purposes and motives of Andre's 
captors. It is too late a day to reverse the judgment of George Washington and 
Alexander Hamilton, of Congress and the Legislature of this State, all pronounced 
at the time. Besides the united testimony of a host of their neighbors and 
acquaintances, the sworn statements of Paulding and Van Wart, and the solemn 
asseverations of Williams seven months before his death in 1831,'' all unite in 
bearing down, with an unanswerable weight of testimony, the eleventh-hour 
statement of Col. Tallmadge thirty-seven years after the capture.* To all this we 
may add the critical analysis, by Henry J. Raymond, of the whole testimony 
bearing on the subject.' That acute publicist dismissed the slander to the repro- 
bation it deserves, and the almost universal judgment of the American people 
confirms the verdict. For myself, I may l)e pei-mittcd to add, that in my judg- 
ment, when e.Kamined with fairness, and tested by the rules of common sense and 
common justice, every candid mind must inevitably conclude that the overwhelm- 
ing balance of proof is upon the side of the incorruptible honesty and purity of 
their motives. Nothing more reliable than rumor and suspicion arising from 
.statements, made solely by Andre, stand u])on the other side, statements, it must 
never be forgotten, which sprang from a heart sorely dejected, chagrined and 
mortified by his own lack of common prudence ; made, too, at a time when his 
mind, sunk beneath a weight of woe almost incalculable, was seeking for relief in 
the contemplation of what might have been. It is our duty to guard the reputa- 
tion of these humble patriots against this misty testimony rising out of surh a 
cuulilron of self-interest. It must always be borne in mind that the British 



206 Centennial Celebrations. 

would not concede that true virtue was a feature of character belonging to 
Americans; and Andre, fresh from a field where he had witnessed the debased 
character of a high officer, was in no condition of mind to stem the tide of opin- 
ion that flowed within the English lines. The virtue of these men, under such 
circumstances, could not be, and evidently was not comprehended. In the words 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Fleury, written from Newport, on the 5th of October, 
1870: "How great, compared to Arnold, are those peasants who refused the 
bribe of Andre! Let this be remembered in favor of the poor." 

I may be permitted to express the hope that somewhere upon this projected 
monument to David Williams will appear these notable words of Washington in 
his letter to the President of Congress: "The party that took Major Andre * 
* * acted in such a manner as does them the highest honor, and proves them to 
be men of great virtue, * * * their conduct gives them a just claim to the 
thanks of their country." 

Perhaps the true nature of this conduct is more eloquently and luminously told 
in the words of Alexander Hamilton, in the Laurens letter, where he says: 
" Arnold's conduct and that of the captors of Andre form a striking contrast. 
He tempted them with the oSer of his watch, his horse and any sum of money 
that they should name. They rejected his offer with indignation, and the gold 
that could seduce a man, high in the esteem and confidence of his country, who 
had the remembrance of past exploits, the motives of present reputation and 
future glory to prop his integrity, had no charms for these simple peasants lean- 
ing on their virtue and an honest sense of their duty. While Arnold is handed 
down with execration, posterity will repeat with reverence the names of Van 
Wart, Paulding and Williams ! " 

I owe it to the occasion, to you and to myself, to present some considerations 
in support of the constantly recurring thought, throughout this discourse, of the 
grave importance of Arnold's plot. I have already alluded to the estimate of its 
advantages to the British government, pronounced by King George the Third. 
From the abvmdant materials furnished by those in the English service at the 
time, I will only add the following, from the memoirs of Sir Henry Clinton, com- 
mander of the British forces in New York. In speaking of the arrest of Andre, 
he says: "I was exceedingly shocked, as maybe supposed, by this very unex- 
pected accident, which not only ruined a most important project, which had all 
the appearance of being in a happy train of success, but involved in danger and 
distress a confidential friend for whom I had deservedly the warmest esteem." 

Creasy, in his ' ' Decisive Battles of the World, " has succinctly described the 
great and pivotal victory of the Americans at Saratoga, on the 17th of October, 
1777. He has conclusively shown the plan of operations which the English 
attemi)ted in that year, and which the battle of Saratoga defeated. The English 
had a considerable force in Canada, wliich had been re-enforced for the purpose 
of striking a vigorous and crushing blow against the colonies. It was intended 
that the force thus collected should march southward by the line of the lakes and 
thence along the banks of the Hudson river. The British army in New York was 
to make a simultaneous movement northward up the line of the Hudson, and the 
two expeditions were to meet at Albany. In this manner all communications 
between the Colonial army in New England, and the principal army under Wnsh- 
ington, which was watching over Pennsylvania and the South, would be cut off. 

The army from Canada was under command of Burgoyne, and that in New 
York under Sir Henry Clinton. The plan was ably formed, and was defeated 



David AVilliams. 207 

only by the consummate skill of General Gates, and the nnpreeedented bravery of 
his men at Saratoga, aided by the delay caused by the fortifications on the lower 
Iludsou, the key of which was West Point, which fortification hindered the 
prompt co-operation of Sir Henry Clinton with Burgoync. Clinton, in fact, 
reached Kingston, where, hearing of Burgoyne's surrender, he biiriud tlie jjlace 
and returned to New York. 

What the capture of West Point would have been to the British will be more 
fully appreciated by an illustration familiar to all. It will be remembered how 
the country was stirred to its very center, on the fourth of July, 1863, by the 
glorious tidings that Vicksburg had fallen, and that "the great Mississippi swept 
imvexed to the sea." What that meant was soon known. Surrounded, like West 
Point, with fortifications, redoubts and bastioned forts, it held within its iron 
grasp the control of the great Mississippi. When it fell, that great artery through 
which ran the life-blood of the Southern Confederacy was absolutely within the 
power of the Federal army. The rebellion had been cut in twain. In the lan- 
guage of Sherman, "the reduction of Vicksburg made the destruction of the 
Rebellion certain." What Vicksburg and her dependencies were to the Missis- 
sippi in 1SC3, West Point and her dependencies were to the Hudson in 1780. 

What had been lost at Saratoga by open force, would have been regained, had 
West Point and its dependencies fallen by means of the secret plottings of 
Arnold. "This was the great object of British and American solicitude," says 
Ir\'ing, in speaking of West Point, "on the possession of which was supposed by 
many to hinge the fortunes of the war." And again he says, " the immediate 
result of this surrender, it was anticipated, would be the defeat of the combined 
attempt upon New York, aud its ultimate effect might be the dismemberment of 
the Union and the dislocation of the whole American scheme of warfare." From 
the mass of American testimony at hand, the following additional proofs are 
selected: La Fayette wrote to his wife October 8th: "A frightful conspiracy 
has been planned by the celebrated Arnold; he sold to the English the fort of 
West Point, which was under his command, and consequently the whole naviga- 
tion of the North river." 

General Greene issued a general order on the 26th of October, from which the 
following is taken : 

" Treason of the blackest dj*e was yesterday discovered. General Arnold, who commanded at 
WestPoint — lost to everj' sentiment of honor, of private and public obligation — was about to 
d»!liver up that important post into the hands of the enemy. Such an event must have given the 
American cause a deadly wound, if not a fatal stab. Happily this treason has been timely dis- 
covered to prevent the fatal misfortune. The providential train of circumstances which led to it 
affords the most convincing proof that the liberties of America are the object of divine protection. 
At the same time, though the treason is to be regretted, the general cannot help congratulating 
the army on the happy discovery. Our enemies, despairing of carrying their point by force, are 
practicing every base art to effect by bribery and corruption, what they cannot accomplish in a 
manly way. Great honor is due to the American army that this is the first instance of the kind, 
where many were t*» be expected from the nature of the dispute ; and nothing is so bright an 
ornament in the character of the American soldiers, as their havingbeen proof against all the arts 
and seductions of an insidious enemy. » * » His Excellency the commander-in-chief has 
arrived at West Point from Hartford, and is no doubt taking proper measures to unravel fully so 
hellish a plot. 

It must be borne in mind, that had the "hellish plot " succeeded it would have 
involved the captivity of Washington himself. The following remark.able letter 
of Governor William Livingston to General Washington so entirely expresses the 
emotions of the hour, that it is inserted in full : 



208 Centennial Celebrations. 

Trenton, 7th October, 1780. 
Dear Sir — I most heartily congratulate your Excellency on the timely discovery of General 
Arnold's treasonable plot to captivate your person and deliver up West Point to the enemy, of 
which the loss of the former, had his infernal machinations succeeded, would have been more re- 
gretted by America than of the latter. The remarkable disposition of Providence to frustrate 
the diabolical conspiracy will iuspire every virtuous American with sincere gratitude to the 
Great Arbiter of all events; and I hope that no true Whig among us will ever forget the memor- 
able era when we were, by the peculiar guardianship of Heaven, rescued from the very brink of 
destruction. " I have the honor to be 

your very obedient servant, 

" WILLIAM LIVINGSTON." 

Is it any wonder, then, that, with pomp and circumstance, and with grateful 
hearts, we assemble to perpetuate, with enduring granite, here under the broad sky, 
and upon the free acres of our beloved country, that transcendent act and that 
renowned virtue of these captors of Andre ! 

Though neglected, he whose ashes lie buried here was not absolutely forgotten 
by his country, and it is proper that allusion should be made to the rewards which 
a grateful country, has bestowed upon him. 

By authority of Congress, in 1780, a silver medal, bearing the inscription of 
" Fidelity " and the legend " Vincit Anwr Patrice" was presented to each of the 
captors, and at the same time an annuity was authorized to be paid to each of 
$200 in specie. In addition, Congress granted to each the privilege of locating any 
confiscated lands in the county of Westchester to the amount of $1,350, or of re- 
ceiving that sum in cash. The Legislature of the State of New York granted to 
each a farm, reciting in the act as a consideration " their virtue in refusing a large 
sum offered to them by Major Andre as a bribe to permit him to escape." In the 
fall of 1830 the corporation of the city of New York invited David Williams (the 
survivor of the three), by special messenger to be present in that city at the cele- 
bration of the French Revolution. He was drawn, with other heroes of '76, in a 
carriage at the head of the procession and attracted much attention. He was pre- 
sented with a silver cup at one of the schools and at another with a silver headed 
cane, the stem of which was made out of chevata de /rise used near West Point 
during the revolution. His widow obtained a continuation of his pension, which 
had ceased at the time of his death. Forty-five years ago, amid a concourse of 
honoring friends and countrymen, he was buried at Livingstonville, in this county. 
His remains have been removed by consent of his descendants to this place. 

Here, in this locality, made memorable by the ruinous invasion of Johnson about 
the time when the events we have described were transpiring near Tarrytown — 
here, near the place where the " peeled log " of the enemy'" left its mark upon the 
old Dutch church — here, where brave men and braver women stood with undaun- 
ted courage in the midst of conflagration, ruin and death — where the red men 
showed no mercy, and where patriots never flinched — let his ashes lie. Not in 
the midst of royal sarcophagi or carved shrines, but surrounded by the veneration 
of uutold generations of frecborn Americans ; not wholly unhonored, as heretofore, 
but graced and adorned with a permanent token of our remembrance and esteem. 
For at last, thanks to the interest and sense of justice of many good men and true, 
the Legislature of the State, by making an appropriation for the monument, has re- 
moved the stain which the neglect of forty-five years had fastened upon us. 

Standing where we do to-day, as it were upon the apex of a pyramid, we look 
back over the way the nation has so grandly trod. In the beginning we per- 
ceive tlip toiling multitudes, who, regardless of personal sacrifice, conscious of 



David Williams. 209 

their own rectitiuli- ;imi1 iclyiiij^ upon tlif favor of God, wrought out the greatest 
empire of freedom the world lias ever seen. In that great work, so full of the 
riclu'st blessings for us and for our ehildren, let it be remembered, that the jjart 
performed by the humblest was often as important as that of the greatest. The 
cause of the colonies was near to the hearts of the people. That was the security 
of the nation then, and it cannot endure without it now. 

Oh! if the young men of our time would glow with a healthy pride of race; if 
they would kindle with the inspiration of patriotism; if they would find annals 
wealthier in enduring lesson, and bright with the radiance of a holier virtue than 
ever Rome embraced or Sparta knew, let them read their own land's history. Then 
may we be hopeful for the future. Then may the story we rehearse here to-day 
be borne to future ages along with the growing grandeur of this mighty nation 
which was built upon the devotion, and will be sustained by the bright examjile 
of tile Hevolutionarv Patriots. 



POEM BY ALFEED B. STREET. 

What fires the human heart with noblest flame. 
And fills, with grandest swell, the trump of fame . 
Strengthens the sinews, war's dread arms to wield — 
Scorns the red horrors of the battle-field — 
Tunes to triumphant song the failing breath. 
And sheds live brilliance on the brow of death? 
'Tis love of country ! mystic fire from Heaven ! — 
To light our race up stateliest heights 'tis given ; 
To guard man's home — make that his holiest shrine 
Where his soul's love grows purest, most divine ; 
Where dear domestic virtues safely bloom. 
And joy's rich rainbows deck grief's transient gloom ; 
At whose bright hearth is changeless summer found 
Heishtening to pleasure daily duty's round; 
Where humble wishes sweet enjo\Tnent shed 
Like violets fragrant in their lowly bed. 
Not this alone 1 beyond the narrow span 
Of single souls, it rivets man to man; 
Links in one circling chain the stretched out hand, 
And makes one fireside of the whole broad land. 
Thus home meets liome, though mountains rise between, 
And winter storms beat backward summer sheen, 
O'er the wide river, through the forest, all 
That most repels, on runs the living wall. 
Against which, should Us faithful strength remain. 
The world shall hurl its angriest waves in vain. 

It turns the rocks to roses, stormiest skies 

To loveliest calm ; where cloudy crags arise 

The anointed eye views plains knee-deep in flowers; 

The ear in dumb wastes hears melodious bowers. 



210 Centennial Celebrations. 

Deem we the Esquimaux, though brutisli, sees 
Heavens that but frown and waters that but freeze ! 
Think we the Arab, though untaught, surveys 
Sands that but burn and sunbeams that but blaze ! 
No ! In that frown the cold-dwarfed shape joerceives 
Summer's soft gold poured out on emerald leaves ; 
His wooden streak, while plunging, ripples smooth 
O'er glassy seas that undulate to soothe ; 
And the fierce roamer of the ocean gray 
■ Treads velvet grass, feels sweet the pleasant ray, 
Till one oasis smiles along his songful way. 
Grand love of Country ! from the earliest time 
Our race has deemed its glory most sublime. 
To its proud praise the lyre has loftiest rung, 
Eloquence woke the music of its tongue ; 
A Hector's deeds filled Homer's breast with fire, 
And when shall patriot Scipio's fame expire ! 
Though Rome's dread Eagle darkened earth at will, 
Thy name, Caractacus, shines brightly still ! 
Planting his foot upon his native sod 
He fought ; though made a slave to Caesar's rod, 
His big heart burst its chains, and up he towered, a God! 
And thus with willing minds we meet to lay 
Our gifts on a loved patriot's shrine to-day. 
Not fortune's favorite he — his humble sail 
Felt but the shock of penury's ceaseless gale; 
Never he knew the rose, but felt the thorn ; 
His pathway led through chill neglect and scorn ; 
Yet, though man glanced on him disdainful eyes, 
God had built up his nature for the skies; 
His heart was mighty, though his path was low — 
Man made the cloud — God tinged it with his bow. 
And thus it is ; the humble lifted up ; 
The pearl oft decks the lowest of the cup. 
Fame dofl^s aside the Sovereign of a day 
To make a Shakespeare King with endless sway; 
Genius, from wealth and titled grandeur, turns 
To touch as with live flame the tongue of Burns. 
And thus though Williams' eye but saw the rim 
Of the low vallej', where alone for him 
Life's pathway upward led, his mental sight 
Flashed with the Eagle's from the mountain height; 
And when the bribe was proffered, off he turned, 
And with a scornful wrath the base temptation spurned. 
Well, well for \is, worth, honor were not sold 
By this high patriot heart for British gold ! 
Treason had woven his most cunning coil 
Around our land, its liberty the spoil; 
The British Lion stood with hungry gloat 
To flesh his fangs within the victim's throat; 



David Williams. 211 

And had the glittering bribe its errand wrouglit, 

Treason had found tlie victory lie sought, 

And the tierce lion fastened in his spring 

Our Eagle's glazing eye, and drooping, dying wing. 

Oh, Treason, foulest demon eartli has seen, 

Darkening ev'n darkness with liis midnight mieu ! 

How oft his spell has fettered Freedom's brand ! 

And for a smiling, left a blighted laud! 

In vain has Liberty uprisen ; — unbound 

Her glorious folds to call her sons around ! 

In vain the crag has burst out into liordes, 

Trees into lances, thickets into swords! 

In vain the cataract's wliite has turned to red. 

And the wind's murmuring to the war-cry dread ! 

The dingle's sylvan stillness, where the bird 

Sprang to its wing if but a leaflet stirred. 

Changed to the tramp of steeds, the clang of arms, 

The grassy music to war's wild alarms! 

In vain, in vain, the blood in vain that ran 

While the soul soaring lifted up the man ! 

In vain has liberty with reverent head 

Heaped to one altar all her sainted dead. 

And kneeling there fought sword in hand, till down 

Her foes have fallen, and she but grasped her crown! 

Like a fell serpent Treason low has crept 

In patriot garb, till off disguise he swept 

Striking his blow with such sure aim, his cry 

Of triumph drowned liis victim's dying sigh. 

Oh mountain peaks, where clouds were cannon-smoke! 

Oh glens, whose green liglit battle-banners broke I 

Oh waves, whose tossings broadside-thunders crushed ! 

Oh skies, whose tempests strife's wild tumults hushed! 

All spots where man for native land has fought, 

Have ye not seen how treason's curse has wrought? 

How the broad front that Freedom reared to foe 

Has felt base Treason creeping from below, 

Close twining round herself and sons till she 

A grand Laocoon has died to Treachery? 

But paeans to brave Williams, and the two, 

Van Wart and Paulding ! no such fate we rue. 

Song to the three I our whole broad land should raise 

One sounding anthem to their patriot praise ! 

For had base Arnold's treason won, we now 

Perchance, instead of jewels on our brow. 

Jewels of freedom, with our doom content. 

Under some kingly bondage might have bent, 

Native or foreign; or like those wild seas 

Of tropic States, have surged to every breeze, 

Dashing in endless strife — for freedom here, 



212 CkISTKNNIAIj CKLEBllAXlUKa. 

And liciT, for kings, until some ruthless spear 

The war liad ended, and a waste of graves 

Upheld a Despot's throne, and ours a land of slaves. 

Now — liail the sight ! — a realm of glorious pride 

Touching eartli's mightiest oceans either side! 

Pine meeting Palm in garlands round her head, 

Starred States, sti-iped climates o'er her banner spread, 

Great Washington diffused; his spirit grand 

Incarnate in the person of our land ! 

I 

In this green valley where war wildest reigned, 

Where life's red current every harvest stained, 

Where peace contrasting, now the brightest glows, 

And, place of battle's thistle, smiles the rose. 

Where builds the bird within the sliattered shell, 

Plumped with soft moss, that slew where'er it fell. 

Where the blue violet yields the skull its eye, 

Instead of strife's close ranks, upstauds the rye. 

Where waves the wheat whence savage plumage flashed, 

And oft avenging Murphy's rifle crashed 

By this Stone Fort tliat once threw back the tide 

Of conflict as its surges smote its side, 

This day our patriot's aslies we consign 

To h|s loved earth, liencefortli a sacred shrine. 

Round which to latest years our grateful hearts shall twine. 

Now on this flowering of our Century Tree, 

Apotheosis of our history, 

This famed Centennial, it is passing well 

Of patriot hearts and patriot deeds to tell, 

That they in memory's grasp should firmly cling 

As gold in quartz, or peai-ls in shells, and fling 

Like stars, a lustre o'er our Nation's way. 

Till Time's grand sun shall set, and dawns Eternal Day. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY DR. DANIEL KNOWER. 

This large concom-se of people, this fine military display, the presence of these 
distinguished persons, and the attendance of so many ladies to grace the occa- 
sion, show that the recollection of patriotic deeds does not die out in the hearts 
of a free people. David Williams, one of the captors of Major Andre, in honor 
of whose memory we are assembled here to-day, was born in Tarrytown, West- 
cliester county, in this State, October 21, 1754. He entered the revolutionary 
amiy in 1775, at the age of nineteen; fought under Montgomery at the battle of 
St. John's and Quebec; and continued in the regular patriot services until 1779. 
The capture of Major Andre occurred on the 33d of September, 1780, ninety-six 
years ago to-day. 



David Williams. 218 

David Williams was tlic^ oldest of the three caplois — he being twenty-five years 
of age, and John Paulding and Isaac Vau \\'art, his compatriots, being about 
twenty years old. The following is Williams' account of the capture, as related 
to Judge Tiffany, at his home in this county, February 13, 1817: "The three 
(militiamen) were seated beside the road in the bushes, amusing themselves at 
cards, when their attention was arrested by the galloping of a horse. On approach- 
ing the road, they saw a gentleman riding toward tliem, seated on a large brown 
horse, which was afterward observed to have marked on the near shoulder the 
initials U. S. A. The rider was a light, trim-built man, about five feet seven 
inches in height, with a bold military countenance aud dark eyes, and was dressed 
in a tall beaver hat, surtout, crimson coat, with pantaloous and vest of nankeen. 
As he neared them, the three cocked their muskets and aimed at the rider, who 
immediately cliecked his horse, and the following conversation ensued: 

Andre — " Gentlemen, I hope you belong to our party!" 

Paulding —'• What party ? " 

Andrt^ — "The lower party." 

Paulding — "We do." This answer threw him off his guard. 

Andre — "I am a British officer; I have been up in the country on particular 
business, and do not wish to be detained a single moment." 

He thereupon pulled out a gold watch, and exhibited it as an evidence that he 
was a gentleman, and returned it again to his fob. Paulding thereupon remarked 
— " We are Americans! " 

Andre — " God bless my soul ! a man must do any thing to get along — I am a 
Continental officer, going down to Dobbs' Ferry to get information from below." 

Andre then drew out and presented a pass from General Arnold in which was 
the assumed name of John Anderson. Seizing hold of the reins of the horse, 
they ordered him to dismount. Andre exclaimed — " You will bring yourselves 
in trouble." "We care not for that," was the reply. They took him down ten 
or fifteen rods, from the road, beside a run of water, and Williams proceeded to 
search his hat, coat, vest, shirt and pantaloons, in wliich they found $80 in Con- 
tinental money; and at last ordered him to take off his boots. At this he changed 
color. Williams drew off the left boot first, and found nothing in it, and Paul- 
ding, seizing the foot, exclaimed excitedly, "My God! here it is!" Tlie 
stocking was then drawn off, and in it, next the bare foot, three half-sheets of 
written paper were found enveloped by a half-sheet marked "Contents, West 
Point." Paulding, still greatly excited, again exclaimed, "JlyGod! he's a spy!" 
On pulling off the other boot and stocking, a similar package was found.* 

Andre was now allowed to dross, and they marched him across the road into 
the field about twenty rods. The young men then winked to each other to make 
further discoveries, and inquired from whom he got the papers ? " Of a man at 
Pine's Bridge, a stranger to me," replied Andre. He then offered them for his 
liberty, his horse, which was browsing a short distance away, and his equipage, 
watch and 100 guineas. This they refused to take, unless he informed them 
where he obtained the manuscript. He refused to comply, but again offered his 
horse, equipage, and 1,000 guineas. They were firm in their denial, and Andre, 
increased his offer to 10,000 guineas, and as many dry goods as they wished, which 
should be deposited in any place desired — they might keep him and send some 

•A number of tlie.se original papers are preservedj ond on exhibition in the State Librarj- at 
Albany. ^ 



214 Centennial Celebrations. 

one to New York (they were at Tarrytown, twenty-eight miles from the city), 
with his order, so that they could obtain them unmolested. To this they replied, 
"that it did not signify for him to make any offer, for he should not go." They 
then proceeded to the nearest military station, which was at North Castle, about 
twelve miles distant, and delivered him to Col. Jamiesen, the American com- 
manding officer. 

The circumstances of the capture as narrated in the testimony of Paulding and 
Williams, given at the trial of Smith eleven days after the captm'e, and written 
down by the Judge Advocate at the time, is substantially the same. Williams, in 
his testimony there says, "He said he would give us any quantity of dry goods, 
or any sum of money, and bring it to any place that we might pitch upon, so that 
we might get it. jMr. Paulding answered, ' No, if you should give us 10,000 
guineas you should not stir one step.' " 

The importance of the capture of Andre can never be too highly estimated. 
The plan for cutting the Colonies in two on the line of the Hudson and Lake 
Champlaiu had been foiled by the capture of Burgoyne. The possession of West 
Point would have given a successful opportunity for prosecuting the same design. 
No wonder that Washington burst into tears when he learned of the treason of 
Arnold. He very well knew what had been our danger, and how narrow had 
been our escape. Washington wrote to Congress, September 28, 1780 — three 
days after the capture — saying: "I do not know the party that took Major 
Andre, but it is said that it consisted of only a few militia, who acted in such a 
manner uj)on the occasion as does them the highest honor and proves them of 
great virtue. As soon as I know their names I shall take pleasure in transmitting 
them to Congress." Again, October 7, 1780, he writes Congress, transmitting the 
findings of the court, which had tried Andre, and in his letter he says: "I have 
now the pleasure to communicate the names of those persons who captured Major 
Andre, and who refused to release him, notwithstanding the most earnest impor- 
tunities and assurances of a liberal reward on his part. Their names are John 
Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart." Alexander Hamilton, writing 
in 1780 of the ailair, says: "Andre tempted their integrity with the ofEer of his 
watch, his horse, and any sum of money they should name. They rejected his 
offer with disdain." 

Congress gave each of them $1,250, or the same value in confiscated lands in 
Westchester county, a pension of $200 and a silver medal. The medals were pre- 
sented to the captors by General Washington at a dinner to which he invited 
them, while the army was encamped near Ver Planck's Point ; the one presented 
to David Williams being now in possession of his oldest grand-son, William C. 
Williams, of this county.* 

David Williams was married to Miss Benedict, of Westchester county, by 
whom he had one son named David, who has seven children living, four in this 
county, two in Iowa, and one in Virginia, who are worthy descendants in honor 
and integrity of the Revolutionary patriot. He moved to this county in 1806, 
and died August 3, 1831, aged seventy-seven, and was buried at Livingstonville 
with military honors, where his remains reposed for forty-five years, and until the 
4th of March, 1876, when they were removed to the cemetery at Rensselaerville. 
On the 19th of July they were removed to the Stone Fort in Schoharie, to which 

» It has since been placed In the State Library at Albany. 



David Williams. 215 

destination they were escorted by a large procession, lieaded by the American 
flag and amid martial music. AH places of business were closed ; the bells toUdd 
and the cannon at the Fort fired a salute as his coffin, wrapped in the American 
flag, was deposited near his present resting place. 

On the first of May, 1870, the Governor signed the following bill, introduced 
by Senator L.\mont, it having passed both houses : 

" For erecting a suitable monument in the cemetery grounds of the Revolu- 
tionary Stone Fort at Schoharie Court House, to commemorate the virtues and 
memory of David Williams, one of the captors of Major Andre, the sum of two 
thousand dollars, to be expended under the supervision of D.\niel Knowku, 
Ralph Brewster, supervisor of the town of Schoharie, and Cii.vules Holmes, 
county judge of Schoharie county, who are hereby appointed a commission for 
that purpose, and who are hereby authorized to remove the remains of the said 
David Williams from their present biu-ial in the cemetery at Rensselaerville, to 
such cemetery at Schoharie Court House, upon first obtaining the consent thereto, 
in writing, of a majority of the descendants of said Williams, and upon furnish- 
ing proof thereof to the comptroller; but in case such consent in writing for said 
removal shall not be obtained, and proof thereof furnished the comptroller 
within two months from tlie passage of this act, then the above appropriation 
shall be expended by a commission, consisting of the comj^troller of the State, 
Erastus D. Palmer, and the President of the Rensselaerville Cemetery Asso- 
ciation, for the erection of the monument in the Rensselaerville cemetery." 

Paulding is buried near Peekskill, and a monument was erected over his 
remains by the corporation of the city of Kew York in 1827. Near Tarrytown 
the remains of Isaac Van Wart are honored by a monument erected by the county 
of Westchester. And now in this centennial year has the State of New York 
recognized, by its Legislature and Governor, this most important event in our 
Revolutionary history. An event which occurred within its borders, and in 
which three of her sons had the honor, by their disinterested patriotism and love 
of country, to save our country in that important crisis of our Revolutionary history. 
General Washington wrote to the President of Congress, October 7, 1780, two 
weeks after the capture: ''Their conduct merits our warmest esteem; and I beg 
leave to add that I think the public would do well to allow them a handsome 
gratuity. They have prevented in all probability our suffering one of the sever- 
est strokes that could have been meditated against us." Yet this one of the most 
disinterested acts of patriotism and love of country recorded in history, strange 
to say, has been attacked and the motives of the actors impugned. 

A bill ])assed Congress some 3-ears since appropriating $20,000 for erecting a 
monument to them,n)Ut did not reach, or was defeated in, the Senate. The patri- 
otism of these men has been impugned by members of Congress. This bill was 
likewise opposed in the State Senate by a senator from New York city, on the 
same grounds. In the language of the poet, 

'* He who ascends to mountain tops must And 
The h:>ftiest hills clad in snow ; 
lie who surpasses and excels mankinds ' 
Must see and feel their hate below." 

Williams lived to be seventy-seven years old and died fifty-two years after the" 
event occurred. Isajic Van Wart lived to the .age of sixty-nine, and died forty- 
nine vears after the event, and John Paulding reached the age of sixtv, dviiig 



216 Centennial Celebrations. 

forty years after the capture.* All three during these long years bore unimpeach- 
able characters for honor and integrity, which would not have been possible if 
they had been marauders and freebooters as represented by those who impugned 
their motives. 

Williams, previous to this event, had served four years in the revolutionary 
army, and Paulding, only three days previous to the capture, had made his escape 
from the Sugar House British Prison t in New York. These facts indicate beyond 
all doubt on which side their feelings were. 

Andre has a monument erected in Westminster Abbey, which is the highest 

'[From John Gebhard, Jr., the celebrated geologist.] 

Schoharie, N . y. , October 16, 187C. 
Dr. Knower, 

Dear Sir— In compliance with your request, that I would inform you what I know in rela- 
tion to the standing and character of the late David Williams, one of the captors of Major 
Andre, I would state, that I was well acquainted with Mr. Williams for several years immedi- 
ately preceding his death, and can bear cheerful testimony to the high standing for truth 
and integrity, in which he was held by his neighbors and acquaintances. 

I was present at his funeral, which was large and imposing. After the sermon was preached, 
the funeral procession proceeded to the cemetery, where an able eulogy was delivered by 
Robert McClellan, Esq.. and before the remains were lowered to theirresting place R.W. 
MuitPHY, Esq. , standing beside the coffin, with a sorrowful heart, overflowing with gratitude 
and sympathy, stated to the vast assemblage that when he was a young orphan boy, David Wil- 
liams took him to his home, supported and clothed him, gave him a good education and aided 
him in starting in business. He also gave a full and minute account of the daily life and 
habits of the deceased; and concluded by saying that David Williams died as he had lived 
through a long life, an upright and honest man. 

Respectfully your ob' serv't, 

JOHN GEBHARD, Jr. 

Isaac Van Wart is buried at Greenburgh, in the grounds attached to the Presbyterian 
church, of which he was an efficient officer for many years. The following inscription on his 
monument by his fellow-citizens of Westchester county, who erected it to his memory in 
1839, with whom he passed most of his life, vindicates the integrity of his character: 

North side—" Here repose the mortal remains of Isaac Van Wart an elder in the Greenburgh 
church, who died on the 23d of May, 1838, in the 69th year of his age. Having lived the life, he 
died the death of a Christian." 

South side— "The citizens of the county of Westchester erected this tomb in testimony of 
the high sense they entertained for the virtuous and patriotic conduct of their fellow-citi- 
zen, as a memorial sacred to public gratitude." 

East side— " Vincit Amor Patriie. Nearly half a century before this monument was built 
the conscript fathers of America had, in the senate chamber, voted that Isaac Van Wart was 
a faithful patriot, one in whom the love of country was invincible, and this tomb bears testi- 
mony that the record is true." 

West side—" Fidelity. On the 2.3d of September, 1780, Isaac Van Wart, accompanied by 
John Paulding and David Williams, all farmers of the county of Westchester, intercepted 
Maior Andr6 on his return from the American lines in the character of a spy, and, notwith- 
standing the large bribes offered them for his release, nobly disdained to sacrifice their coun- 
try for gold, secured and carried him to the commanding officer of the district, whereby the 
dangerous and traitorous conspiracy of Arnold was brought to light, the insidious designs of 
the enemy haflled, the American army saved and our beloved country free." 

John Paulding. I have not obtained so much of the details of his life. The monument 
erected over his remains near Peekskill in 1837, by the corporation of the city of New York, 
was addressed bv William Paulding, mayor of New York, believed to have been a relative. 
We understand he has a son residing near Huntington, Long Island, near eighty years of age, 
a retired rear admiral of the navy, a very distinguished gentleman, not onlyasan officer in 
the navy, but for his literary ability and talents. 

[Extract of a letter from J. R. Simms, Historian of Schoharie county.] 

FoKT Plain, Montgomery Co., October 9, 1876. 

Long, long ago was the enterprise contemplated. Judge Morphy, whom it was our pleas- 
ure to know nearly thirty yearsago, and who was then a worthy citizen of Livingstonville, 
Schoharie county, was brought upfrom childhood in the family of David Williams as one of 
ills own children. He held the character and virtue of his benefactor in the highest esteem. 
No one could estimate his character more truthfully, and no man ever knew him better, and 
the picture he gave of him as a man would compare favorably for candor, integrity and 
benevolence with that of any man in Schoharie county to-day. Talking with JudL'e Murphy 
at his own residence upon the subject of a monument to his god-father, we learned that he 
had been indef.atigable in his efforts to procure one. He repeatedly petitioned Congress to 
make an appropriation for this purpose, and being a man of good address, he even went in 
person to Washington to urge upon the law makers their duty. As the event we would honor 
was one of a national character, it would seem as though ho applied to the right source. 

tPaulding madehis escape in the dress of aGorman jiiger. General Van Cortland says thiit 
Paulding wore this dress on the day of the capture, which tended to deceive AndrC- and led 
Lini to exclaim " Thank God 1 I am once more among friends." 



David Williams. 217 

liunor that can be conferre<l on tlu; remains of any person in England. His 
remains were removed from this country in a coffin mounted with gold. His 
brother was created a knight, in honor of his services in this affair, by the King 
of England. 

What were the services Andre rendered to England, compared with the ser\i- 
ces these three disinterested patriots rendered this country? Let it not always 
be said that Republics are ungrateful. Even the motives of the men who com- 
menced the Revolution by throwing the tea overboard in Boston harbor, and the 
motive of those who fought the battles of Bunker Hill and Lexington were 
attacked. It has been said that their grievances from Great Britain did not justify 
a resort to such measures. These men knew that if they yielded one jioint guar- 
anteed to them in the liberal charters that had been granted to the Colonies, as 
an inducement for them to emigrate to this country when a wilderness, that 
America would become a second Ireland, and all the rights guaranteed to them 
in their charters would be cru.shed out. If I have any pride of ancestry, it is in 
being descended from the men who took part in the glorious events where the 
cannon first thundered iu the war of the revolution. 

Your commissioners propose to make an appeal to any county, city, associa- 
tion, literary club or individual, who may subscribe not less than $300 or more 
than $1,800, in addition to the $3,000 appropriated by the State, and to have the 
names of the subscribers inscribed on one of the faces of the monument, or on a 
marble tablet to be erected in the Fort, as the artists who may design the monu- 
ment may think most appropriate. It is proposed to appoint one or more of the 
most distinguished artists and sculptors in the State to design the monument, 
and make it a work of art appropriate to the event. 

We are now one hundred years old as a nation. Our material prosperity and 
growth is unjiaralleled 'n history. For the sake of the future and the perpetuity 
of our free institutions, we should cultivate sentiments that will inspire in the 
youth a strong love of country. What more appropriate occasion than the pres- 
ent to erect here a work of art, which will call attention for all time to the disin- 
terested patriotism of these three men who saved our country in the revolution? 
It was such men among our common soldiers that enabled the country to produce 
a Washington. The people, the source and fountain of political power, must be 
kept pure and patriotic if we wish to perpetuate our republican form of govern- 
ment. The more we learn from the men of the revolution, and the more strictly 
we adhere to the great princii)les inaugurated in our go\ernnieut by its founders, 
the better for the future of our country. Although the disinterested patriotism 
of these three men has conferred its benefits on a great nation of 44,000,000 of 
people, yet the Empire State of New York enjoys the honor of having had the 
event occur within its own borders. I feel that her sons and daughters will 
respond to an ajijieal for the erection of a work of art, in this beautiful valley of 
Schoharie, beside this Revolutionary Fort, that will do justice to this important 
event, and in which we all may take a just pride. 
28 



218 Centennial Celebeations. 



APPENDIX 



GRENVILLE TREMAIN'S ADDRESS. 



Note 1. — When Andre's remains were removed in 1831, from tlieir burial place 
in this country, a young peach tree was found growing out of the grave. 

Note 2. — Remarlis of Chief Justice Marshall: " A7idre Jiamng been unquestiona- 
bly a spy, and his sentence consequently just ; and the plot in whicli he had engaged 
having threatened consequences the most fatal to America, his execution, had he 
been an ordinary person, would certainly have been viewed with cold indifference ; 
but he was not an ordinary person. It would seem that art had been successfully 
employed in the embellishment of those fascinating qualities whicli nature had pro- 
fusely lavished on him. 

"Possessed of a fine person and an excellent understanding, he had united the 
polish of a court, and the refinements given by education, to the heroism of a sol- 
dier." ******** ***** 

Note 3. — A brother of Andre's was knighted by the king of England to remove 
the stain which was supposed to attach to the family on account of the mode of 
Andre's death. 

Note 4. — Letter from Mr. Andre to Miss Seward. Sargent's Life of Andre, 
page 21 : 

" London, October 19, 1769. 

" From the midst of books, papers, bills, and other implements of gain, let me 
lift up my drowsy head awhile to converse with dear Julia. And first, as I know she 
has a fervent wish to see me a quilldri%'er, 1 must tell her, that 1 begin, as people 
are wont to do, to look upon my future profession with great partiality. I no longer 
see it in so disadvantageous a light. Instead of figuring a merchant as a middle aged 
man, with a bob-wig, a rough beard, in suufF-colored clothes, grasping a guinea in his 
red band, 1 conceive a comely young man, with a tolerable pig-tail, wielding a pen with 
all the noble fierceness of the Duke of Marlborough brandishing a truncheon upon a 
sign-post, surrounded with types and emblems, and canopied with cornucopias that 
disembogue their stores upon his head ; Mercuries reclined upon bales of goods ; 
Genii playing with pens, ink and paper; while, in perspective, his gorgeous vessels, 
"Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames," are wafting to distant lands the 
produce of this commercial nation. Thus all the mercantile glories crowd on my 
fancy emblazoned in the most refulgent coloring of an ardent imagination. Borne 
on her soaring pinions I wing my flight to the time when Heaven shall have crowned 
my labors with success and opulence. I see sumptuous palaces rising to receive me ; 
I see orphans and widows, and painters, and fiddlers, and poets and builders, protected 
and encouraged ; and when the fabric is pretty nearly finished by my shattered peri- 



Appendix to Gkenville Tkemain's Address. 219 

cranium, 1 cast my eyes around and find John Andre by a small coal-fire, in a gloomy 
compting-house in Warnford Court, nothing so little as what he has been making 
himself, and, in all probability, never to be much more than he is at present. But 
oh ! my dear Honora !. it is for thy sake only I wish for wealth. * * * You say she was 
somewhat better at the time you wrote last. I must flatter myself that she will 
soon be without any remains of this threatening disease. It is seven o'clock ; you 
and Honora, with two or three more select friends, are now probably encircling 
your dressing-room fireplace. What would I not give to enlarge that circle ! The 
idea of a clean hearth, and a snug circle round it, formed by a few select friends, 
transport me. You seem combined together against the inclemency of the weather, 
the hurry, bustle, ceremony, censoriousness and envy of the world. The purity, the 
warmth, the kindly influence of fire — to all for whom it is kindled — is a good em- 
blem of the friendship of such amiable minds as Julia's and her Honora's. Since I 
cannot be there in reality, pray imagine me with you ; admit me to your conversa- 
tiones — think how I wish for the blessing of joining them! and be persuaded that 
I take part in all your pleasures, in the dear hope, that ere very long, your blazing 
hearth will burn again for me. Pray keep me a place ; let the poker, tongs or 
shovel, represent me. But you have Dutch tiles, which are infinitely better ; so let 
Moses, or Aaron, or Balaam's ass, be my representative. But time calls me to Clap- 
ton. I quit you abruptly till tomorrow, when, if I do not tear the nonsense I have 
been writing, I may, perhaps, increase its quantity. Signora Cynthia is in clouded 
majesty. Silvered with her beams, I am about to jog to Clapton upon my own 
stumps; musing as I homeward plod my way — ah! need I name the subject of my 
contemplations ? " 

Note .5. — The important consequence of this cannonade was not understood, when 
the following note was written by Colonel Lamb ; 

West Point, 20 September, 1780. 
Sir — I have sent the ammunition you requested, but, at the same time, I wish 
there may not be a wanton waste of it, as we have little to spare. Firing at a ship 
wiih a four-pounder is, in my opinion, a waste of powder, as the damage she will 
sustain is not equal to the expense. Whenever applications are made for ammuni- 
tion, they must be made through the commanding ofiicer of artillery, at the post 
where it is wanted. I am, sir, yours, etc., 

JOHN LAMB. 
Coi,. Livingston. 

Note 6. — Papers found on Major Andre's person when captured. 

I. 
[Pass for the use of Andrt''. In .Vrnold's handwriting.] 

IlF.An-i;UARTERS, RoBINSON'S HOOSE,) 

Scpt'r 22d, 1780. ) 

Permit Mr. John Anderson to pass the guards to White Plains, or below if lu, 
chuses, he being on public business by my direction. 

B. ARNOLD, M. Geii'l. 
(Indorsed: Arnold to John Anderson — Pass. 22 Sept., 1780.) 



220 Centennial Celebrations. 



II. 

[Artillery Orders.] 

(Disposition of the Oarrison at West Point, in case of an alarm — hi Arnold's 

liandwriting.) 

Wt. Point, Sept. 5th, 1780. 
Artillery Orders : 

The following disposition of the corps is to take place, in case of an alarm ; 

Capt. Dannils, with his company, at Fort Putnam, and to detach an officer with 
12 men to Wylly's Redoubt ; a nou commissioned officer with i! men, to Webb's 
Redoubt, and a like number to Redoubt No. 4 ; Captain Thomas' company to repair 
to Fort Arnold ; Captain Simmons and company to remain at the North and South 
Redoubts, at the east side of the river, until further orders. 

Lieut. Barber, with 20 men of Capt. Jackson's company, will repair to Constitu- 
tion Island; the remainder of the company, with Lieut. Masons, will repair to Arnold. 

Capt. Lieut. George and Lieut. Blake, with 20 men of Capt. Treadwill's company, 
will repair to Redoubt No. 1 and 2 ; the remainder of the company will be sent to 
Fort Arnold. 

Lieut. Jones's company, with Lieut. Fisk, to repair to the South Battery. The 
Chain Battery, Sherburn's Redoubt, and th/> Brass Field-pieces will be manned from 
Fort Arnold, as occasion may require. 

The Commissary and Conductor of Military stores will, in turn, wait upon the 
Commanding Officer of Artillery for orders. 

The Artificers in the Garrison (agreeable to former orders) will repair to Fort 
Arnold, and there receive further orders from the Commanding Officer of Artillery, 
J. Bauman, Major Comm't Artillery. 

(Indorsed: Artillery Orders, Sept. 5, 1780.) 

III. 

(Kiitim.nte of the Strength of the Oarrison, Sept. 1780. — In Arnold's handwriting.) 
Estimate of the forces at Wt. Point and its dependencies, Sept. 13th, 1780: 

A Brigade of Massachusetts Militia and two Regiments of Rank and File, 
New Hampshire, inclusive of 166 Batteaux Men at Verplaucks and Stoney 
Points 902 

On command and extra service at Fish Kills, New Windsor, &c., &c., who 

may be called in occasionally 852 

Three Regiments of Connecticut Militia, under the command of Colonel Wells, 

on the lines near No Castle 488 

A Detachment of New York Levies on the lines 11.'5 

Militia 2,447 

Colonel Lauib's Regiment 167 

Colonel Livingston, at Verplanck and Stoney Pts 80 

Continental 247 

(Monel Sheldon's Dragoons on. the lines, about one-half Mounted 142 

Batteaux Men and Artificers 250 

Total 3,08G 



(Indorsed: Estimate of the Force at Wi^sl Point and its dependencies, Sept., 1780.) 



Ai-i'i:.NDi.\ TO (iujiiW iLLE Tkkmaijn's Addue.ss. '221 



IV, 

(Estimate of the Force necessary to completely Man the Works. — In Arnold's hand- 

■writing.) 

Estimate of tliu number of nirn necessary to Man tUe works at Wst. Point ami in 
the vicinity. 

Fort Arnold 020 

" Putnam 450 

" Wyll.vs 140 

'■ Webb 140 

Redoubt No. 1 150 

■• 2 J 150 

" 3 120 

" 4 100 

" 5 130 

■• G 110 

" 7 78 

NortU Kedoubt 130 

South Kedoubt 130 

Total 2, 438 



VILLEPAUCHE. Engineer. 

N. B. — The artillerj'men are not included in the above estimate. 

(Indorsed : Estimate of Men to Man the Works at West Point, &c., Sept., 1780.) 



222 



Centennial Celebrations. 



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Appendix to Gkenville Tremain's Ajjdukss. •22:] 



VI. 
[Remarks on Works at West Point, September, 1780 — In Arnold's /utndwriting.) 

Sept. 1780. 

Fort Arnold is built of dry fascines and wood, is in a ruinous condition, incomplete 
and subject to take fire from shells or carcasses. 

Fort Putnam, stone wanting great repairs ; the wall on the east side broke down, 
and rebuilding from the foundation at the west and south side ; have been a chevaus 
de frise on the west side broke in many places. The east side open, two Bomb Proofs 
and Provision JIagazine in the Fort, and slight wooden Barrack. A commanding 
piece of ground, 500 yards west between the Fort and No. 4^ or Rocky Hill. 

Fort Webb, built of fascines and wood ; a slight work, very dry and liable to be 
set on fire, as the approaches are very easy, without defenses, save a slight abattis. 

Fort Wylly's, built of stone ; five feet high, the work above plank filled with 
earth ; the stone work 15 feet ; the earth nine feet thick. No Bomb Proofs ; the Bat- 
teries without the Fort. 

Redoubt No. 1. On the south side; wood nine feet; the west, north and east 
sides four feet thick ; no cannon in the works ; a slight and single abattis ; no ditch 
or picket ; cannon on two Batteries ; no Bomb Proofs. 

Redoubt No. 2. The same as No. 1. No Bomb Proofs. 

Redoubt No. 3. A slight woodwork three feet thick ; very dry ; no Bomb Proofs; 
a single abattis ; the work easily set on fire ; no cannon. 

Redoubt No. 4. A wooden work about ten feet high and four or five feet thick ; 
the west side faced with a stone wall eight feet high and four feet thick ; no Bomb 
Proof ; two sis pounders ; a slight abattis ; a commanding piece of ground 500 yards 
west. 

The North Redoubt on the east side built of stone, four feet high; above the stone, 
wood filled in with earth ; very dry ; no ditch ; a Bomb Proof ; three Batteries with- 
out the Fort, a poor abattis; a rising piece of ground 500 yards south ; the approaches 
under cover to within twenty yards; the work easily fired with faggots dipt in 
pitch, etc. 

South Redoubt much the same as the North ; a commanding piece of ground 500 
yards due east; three Batteries without the Fort. 

(Indorsed ; Remarks on Works at West Point, a copy to be transmitted to his Excel- 
lency General Washington.) 

VII. 

(Copy of a State of Matters laid before a Council of TVar, by Oeneral Washington 
Sept. 0, 1780. — In Arnold's liandioHting.) 

At a Council of War, held in Camp, Bergen county, Sept. 0, 1780. 

Present — The Commander-in-Chief. 

The Commander-in-Chief states to the Council that, since he had the honor of lay- 
ing before the General Offic(>rs, at Morristown, the 6th of .Tuue last, a general view 
of our circumstances, several important events have occurred, which have materially 
changed the prospects of the campaign. 

That the succor expected from France, instead of coming out in one body, and pro- 
ducing a national superiority in these seas, has been divided into two divisions, the first 
of which, only consisting of seven ships of the line, one forty-four, and three smaller, 
frigates, with five thousand land forces, had arrived at Rhode Island. 

That a re-enforcement of six ships of the line from England having re-enforced the 
enemy, had made their Naval Force in these seas amount to nine sail of the line, two 



224 Centennial Celebrations. 

fifties, two forty-fours, and a number of smaller frigates, a force completely superior 
to that of our allies, and wliich has, in consequence, held them blocked up iu the 
harbor of Rhode Island till the 29th ult., at which period the British fleet disap- 
peared, and no advice of them has since been received. 

That accounts received by the alliance frigate, which left France in July, announces 
the Second Division to be confined in Brest, with several other ships, by a British 
fleet of thirty-two sail of the line, and a fleet of the allies of thirty-sis or thirty eight 
ships of the line, ready to put to sea from Cadiz to relieve the port of Brest. 

The most of the States, in their answers to the requisitions made of them, give 
the strongest assurances of doing every thing in their power to furnish the men and 
supplies required for the expected co-operation. 

The effect of which, however, has been far short of our expectations, for not much 
above one-third of the levies demanded for the Continental Battalions, nor above 
the same proportion of Militia, have been assembled, and the supplies have been so 
inadequate that there was a necessity for dismissing all the Militia, whose immediate 
services could be dispensed with, to lessen our consumption, notwithstanding which 
the troops now in field are severely suffering for want of provisions. 

That the army at this post and in the vicinity, iu operating force, consists of 10,400 
Continental troops and about 400 Militia, besides which is a regiment of Continental 
troops of about 500 at Rhode Island, left there for the assistance of our allies, against 
any attempt of the enemy that way ; the two Connecticut State regiments, amount, 
ing to 800, at North Castle . 

That the time of service for which the levies are engaged will expire the first of 
January, which, if not replaced, allowing for the usual casualties, will reduce the 
Continental Army to less than 6,000. 

That since the state to the council above referred to, the enemy have brought a 
detachment of about 3,000 men from Charles Town to New York, which makes the 
present operating force in this quarter between ten and eleven thousand men. 
. That the enemies' force now in the southern States has not been lately ascertained 
by any distinct accounts, but the General supposes it cannot be less than 7,000 (of 
•which about 3,000 are at Savannah), in this estimate the diminution by the casualties 
of the climate is supposed to be equal to the increase of force derived from the dis- 
affected. That added to the loss of Charles Town and its garrison, accounts of a 
recent misfortune are just arrived from MajorGeueral Gates, giving advice of a 
general action which happened on the IGth of August, near Campden, in which the 
army under his command met with a total defeat, and, in all probability, the whole 
of the Continental troops, and a considerable part of the Militia would be cut off. 

That the State of Virginia has been sometime exerting itself to raise a body of 
3,000 troops to serve till the end of December, 1781, but how far it has succeeded is 
not known. 

That Maryland had resolved to raise 2,000 men, of which a sufficient number to 
compose one battalion, was to have come to this army. The remainder to recruit 
the Maryland line, but in consequence of the late advices, an order has been sent to 
march the whole southward. 

That the enemies' force in Canada, Halifax, St. Augustine and at Penobscot, 
remains much the same as stated in the preceding Council. 

That there is still reason to believe the Court of France will prosecute its original 
intention of giving eff'ectual succor to this country, as soon as circumstances will 
permit; and it is hoped the second division will certainly arrive in the course of the 
fall. That a fleet greatly superior to that of the enemy iu the West Indies, and a 
formidable land force had sailed some time since from Martinique to make a com- 
bined attack upon the Island of Jamaica, that there is a possibility of a re-enforce- 
ment from this quarter also, to the fleet of our ally at Rhode Island. 



Appendix to Grenville Tremain's Address. 225 

The Commander-in-Chief having thus given the Council a full view of our present 
situation and future prospects, requests the opinion of each member, in writing, 
wliat plan it will be advisable to |)ursue ; to what objects our attention ought to be 
directed in the course of this fall and winter, taking iuto consideration the alterna- 
tive of having or not having a naval superiority ; whether any offensive operations 
can be immediately undertaken and against what point ; what ought to be our imme- 
diate preparations and dispositions, particularly whether we can afford or ought to 
send any re enforcements from this army to the Southern Statee, and to what amount ; 
the General requests to be favored with these opinions by the 10th instant at farthest. 

(Indorsed: Copy of a Council of War held Sept. Gth, 1T80.) 

Note 7. — So long a time has elapsed since the documents here referred to were 
originally published, that they had been very generally forgotten ; and as they are 
important to a correct judgment of the conduct and motives of the captors of Andre, 
on which even Mr. Sparks, with less than his scrupulous regard for exact justice, 
has thrown down unmerited distrust, it may not be amiss to reprint them in this 
connection. They were originally published in February and March, 1817, imme- 
diately after the remarks of Major Tallmadge in Congress. 

Certificate of Inhabitants of Westchester County. 

"We, the subscribers, inhabitants of the county of Westchester, do certify, that 
during the Revolutionary war, we were well acquainted with Isaac Van Wart, David 
Williams and John Paulding, who arrested Major Andre ; and that at no time during 
the Revolutionary war, was any suspicion entertained by their neighbors or acquaint- 
ances, that they or either of them held any undue intercourse with the enemy. 

"On the contrary, they were universally esteemed, and taken to be ardent and faith- 
ful in the cause of the country. 

" We further certify, that the said Paulding and Williams are not now resident 
among us, but that Isaac Van Wart is a respectable freeholder of the town of Mount 
Pleasant : that we are well acquainted with him ; and we do not hesitate to declare 
our belief that there is not an individual in the county of Westchester, acquainted 
with Isaac Van Wart, who would hesitate to dnscribe him as a man whose integrity 
is as unimpeachable as his veracity is undoubted. In these respects no man in the 
county of Westchester is his superior. 

" Jonathan G. Tompkins, aged 31 years. " Gilbert Dean, aged 70 years. 

" Jacob Purdy, aged 77 years. " Jonathan Odell, aged 87 years. 

" John Odell, aged 60 years. " Cornelius Vantassel, aged 71 years. 

" John Boyce, aged 73 years. '' Thomas Boyce, aged 71 years. 

" J. Requa, aged .57 years. " Tunis Lynt, aged 71 years. 

" William Paulding, aged 81 years. " Jacobus Dyckman, aged 68 years. 

" John Requa, aged .'54 years. " William Hammond. 

" Archer Read, aged 64 years. " John Romer." 

" George Comb, aged 72 years. 

Isaac Van Wart's Affidavit. 

" Isaac Van Wart, of the town of Mount Pleasant, in the county of Westchester, 
being duly sworn, doth depose and say that he is one of the three persons who 
arrested Major Andre during the American Revolutionary War, and conducted him 
to the American camp. That he, this deponent, together svith Uavid Williams and 
John Paulding, had secreted themselves at the aide of the highway, for the purpose 
of detecting any person coming from or having unlawful intercourse with the 
enemy, being between the two armies — a service not uncommon in those times. 
29 



226 Centennial Celebrations. 

That this deponent and his companions were armed with muskets, and, upon seeing 
Major Andre approach the place where they were concealed, they rose and presented 
their muskets at him and required him to stop, which he did. He then asked them 
whether they belonged to his party 1 and then they asked him which party was his 
party? to whicli he replied, ' the lower party.' Upon which they — deeming a little 
stratagem, under such circumstances, not only justifiable, but necessary — gave him 
to understand that they were of his party ; upon which he joyfully declared himself 
to be a British officer, and told them that he had been out on very particular business. 
Having ascertained thus much, this deponent and bis companions undeceived him as 
to their characters, declaring themselves Americans, and tliat he mu.st consider him- 
self their prisoner. Upon this, with seeming unconcern, he said he had a pass from 
General Arnold, which he exhibited, and then insisted on their permitting him to 
proceed ; but they told him that, as he had confessed himself to be a British officer, 
they deemed it to be their duty to convey him to the American camp, and then took 
him into a wood, a short distance from the highway, in order to guard against being 
surprised by parties of the enemy, who were frequently reconnoiteriug in that neigh- 
borhood. 

That when they had him in the wood they proceeded to search him, for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining who and what he was, and found inside of his stockings and 
boots, nest to his bare foot, papers, which satisfied them that he was a spy. Major 
Andre how showed them his gold watch, and remarked that it was evidence of his 
being a gentleman, and also promised to make them any reward they might name, if 
they would but permit him to proceed, which they refused. 

He then told them that if they doubted the fulfillment of his promise, triei/ might 
conceal Mm in some 'secret place, and keep him there until they could send to Neio York 
and receive their reward. And this deponent expressly declares that every offer made 
by Major Andre to them was promptly and resolutely refused. And, as for himself, 
he solemnly declares that he had not, and he does most sincerely believe that Pauld- 
ing and Williams had not, any intention of plundering the prisoner, nor did they con- 
fer with each other, or even Jiesitate whether they should accept his promises ; but, on 
the contrary, they were, in the opinion of this deponent, governed, like himself, by 
a deep interest in the cause of the country and a strong sense of duty. And this 
deponent further says that he never visited the British camp, nor does he believe or 
suspect that either Paulding or Williams ever did, except that Paulding was once, 
before Andre's capture, and once afterward, made a prisoner by the British, as this 
deponent has been informed and believes. And this deponent for himself expressly 
denies that he ever held any unlawful traffic, or any intercourse whatever, with the 
enemy. 

And appealing solemnly to that Omniscient Being at whose tribunal he must 

Boon appear — he doth expressly declare that all accusations, charging him therewith' 
are utterly untrue. 

ISAAC VAN WART. 
Sworn before me, this 28th ) 

day of January, 1817. ( 

Jacob R.\i)Cliffe, Mayor. 

John Paulding's Affidavit. 

John Paulding, of the county of Westchester, one of the persons who took Major 
Andre, being duly sworn, saith that he was three times, during the Revolutionary 
War, a prisoner with the enemy ; the first time he was taken at the White Plains 
when under the command of Captain Requa, and carried to New York and 
confined in the Sugar-House. The second time he was taken near Tarrytown, 
when under the command of Lieutenant Peacock, and confined in the North 



Appendix to Grenville Tkejiain's Address. 227 

Dutch C'liurch, in New York ; that both these times he escaped, and tlie last 
of them only four days before tlic capture of Andre ; that the last time he was 
taken he was wounded and lay in the hospital in New York, and was discharged on 
the arrival of the news of peace there ; that he and his companions. Van Wart and 
Williams, among otlier articles which they took from Major Andn', were his watch, 
horse, saddle and bridle, and which they retained as prize ; that they delivered over 
Andre, with the papers found on liim, to Col. Jameson, who commanded on the lines ; 
that shortly thereafter they were summoned to appear as witnesses at tlie head-quar- 
ters of General Washington, at Tappan ; tliat they were at Tappan some days, and 
examined as witnesses before the court-martial on the trial of Smith, who brought 
Andre ashore from on board the sloop of war; that while there. Col. William S. 
Smith redeemed the watch from them for thirty guineas ; which, and the money re- 
ceived for the horse, saddle and bridle, they divided equally among themselves and 
four other persons, who belonged to their party, but when Andre was taken, were 
about half a mile off, keeping a look-out on a liill ; that Andre had no gold or silver 
money with him, but only some Continental bills, to the amount of about eighty dol- 
lars ; that the medals given to him and Van Wart and Williams, by Congress, were 
presented to them by General Washington, when the army was encamped at Ver- 
planck's Point, and that tln-y on the occasion dined at his table ; that Williams re- 
moved some years ago from Westchester county to the northern part of the State, 
but where particularly, the deponent does not know. And the deponent, referring 
to the affidavit of Van Wart, taken on the 38th of January last, and which he has 
read, says that the same is in substance true. 

JOHN PAULDING. 
Sworn before me, this Gth ( 
dayof May, 1817. (' 

Charles (i. Van Wtck, 

Master in Chancery. 

AutobioffrapJiy of Damd Willia7ns. 

The following biography of David Williams appeared in the Albany Daily Adver- 
tiser, in January preceding his death, said to have been dictated by himself : 

"I was born in Tarrytown, then called Philips' Manor, Westchester county. New 
York, October21st, 17.54. I entered the army in 1775, at the age of 21, and was under 
General Montgomery at the siege of Fort St. .Johns, and afterward on board the flat- 
bottomed boats to carry provisions, etc.; and served out my time which was six 
months ; I then went, listed again in the spring of 1776, and continued iu the service 
by different enlistments, as a New York militiaman, until 1779. In 1778, when in 
Capt. Acker's company of New York militia, at Tarrytown, I asked his permission to 
take a walk in company witli William Van Wart, a boy sixteen or seventeen years 
old; I proceeded to the cross-roads on Tompkins' ridge ; stood looking a few mo- 
ments ; saw five men coming, thoy had arms; we jumped over a stone fence and 
concealed ourselves in a corner of it ; ob.served that they were armed witli two mus 
kets and three pistols; they came so nigh that we recognized two of them, viz.: Wil- 
liam Underhill and William Moshcr. wlio were tories, and Icnown to be of DeLancy's 
corps ; when they came within proper distance, I said to ray companion, ' Billy, neck 
or no joint I' I then said aloud as if speaking to a number, with a view of intimida- 
ting them.' Men, mni-e rcrtrfy.' ' They stopped immediately; I told them to ground 
their arms, which they did ; I then said, ' March away ; they did so ; I then jumped 
over the fence, .secured their arms, and made tliem marcli before us to our quarters ; 
1 continued in the service until a week or ten days before the year 1780. In Decern, 
ber, 177il. Captain Daniel Williams, wlio was commander of our company, mounted 
us on horses, and we went to Morrisania, Westchester county. We swept all Mor- 



228 Centennial Celebrations. 

risauia clear ; took probably $5,000 worth of property ; returned to Tarrytown and 
quartered at Young'a house. My feet being frozen, my uncle, Martinus Van Wart, 
took me to his house ; I told Captain Williams that the enemy would soon be at 
Young's, and that if he remained there he would be on his way to Morrisauia before 
morning ; he paid no attention to my remarks — he did not believe me ; but in the 
course of the night a woman came to my uncle's crying, ' Uncle Martinus! Uncle 
Martinus!' 1"he truth was, the British had surrounded Young's house, made prison- 
ers of all the company except two, and burnt the barn. Having got well of my 
frozen feet, on the 3d of June, 1780, we were all driven from Tarrytown to the upper 
part of Westchester county, in the town of Salem. We belonged to no organized 
company at all ; were under no command, and worked for our board or johtiny-enke. 
Isaac Van Wart, who was a cousin of mine (the father of Williams and mother of 
Van Wart were brother and sister), Nicholas Storms and myself went to Tarrytown 
on a visit; we carried our muskets with us, and on our way took a Quaker who said 
he was going to New Y"ork after salt and other things. The Quaker vras taken before 
the American authority and acquitted. 

" In July or August a number of persons, of whom I was one, went on a visit 
to our friends in Tarrytown, and while on his way took ten head of cattle, 
which some refugees were driving to New York, and, on examination before 
the authority, the cattle were restored to their right owners, as they pleaded in- 
nocence, saying they were stolen from them. I then returned to Salem, and 
worked with a Mr. Benedict for my board, until the 23d of September. It was about 
one o'clock p. M., as I was standing in the door with Mr. Benedict's daughter (who was 
afterward my wife), when I saw six men coming ; she remarked, ' They have got guns.' 
I jumped over a board fence and met theni. ' Boys,' said I, ' where are you going ? ' 
They answered ' we are going to Tarrytown.' I then said ' if you will wait until 
I get my gun I will go with you.' Tlie names of the six persons were, Isaac Van 
Wart, John Paulding, William Williams, John Yerks and James Romer ; the name 
of the sixth I have forgotten. W^e proceeded about fifteen miles that night, and 
slept in a hay barrack; In the morning we crossed Buttermilk hill, when John 
Paulding proposed to go to Isaac Rjed's and get a pack of cards to divert ourselves 
with. After procuring them we went out to Davis' hill, where we separated, 
leaving four on the hill and three, viz.. Van Wart, Paulding and myself, proceeded 
on the Tarrytown road about one mile and concealed ourselves in the bushes on the 
west side of the road, and commenced playing cards three handed, that is, each one 
for himself. We had not been playing more than an hour, when we heard a horse 
galloping across a bridge but a few yards from us ; which of us spoke I do not remem 
ber, but one of us said, ' there comes a trader going to New York.' We stepped 
out from our concealment and stopped him. ' My lads," said he, ' I hope you belong 
to our party.' We asked liim 'what party?' he replied, 'the lower party.' We 
told him ' we did.' He then said, ' I am a British officer, have been up the country 
on particular business, and would not wish to be detained a minute,' and as a token 
to convince us he was a gentleman, he pulled out and showed us his gold watch ; 
we then told him we were Americans. ' God bless my soul,' said he, ' a man must 
do any thing these times to get along,' and then showed us Arnold's pass. We told 
him it would not satisfy us without searching him. 'My lads,' said he, 'you will 
bring youri<elves into trouble.' We answered ' we did not fear it,' and conducted 
him about seventy rods into the woods. My comrades appointed me to search him ; 
commencing with his hat, I searched his person effectually, but found nothing until 
I pulled o£F his boot, when we discovered that something was concealed in his stock- 
ing. Paulding caught hold of his foot and exclaimed, ' by G — d, here it is ! ' I pulled 
ofiF his stocking, and inside of it, next to the sole of his foot, found three half sheets 
of paper inclosed in another half sheet which was indorsed ' West Point ;' and on 



Appendix to Gtkknville Tkemain's Addkess. 229 

pulling off the other boot and stocking, I found three like papers, inclosed and 
indorsed as the others. On reading tliera, one of my companions said, ' by G — d, he 
isa.«py/' We then asked liini wlicre he got those papers? he told us, 'of a man 
at Pine's bridge,' but he said ' he did not know liis name.' He oflfered us his gold watch' 
his horse, saddle, bridle and 100 guineas, if wo would let him go ; we told him ' no 
unless he would inform us where he got the papers.' He answered us as before, but 
increased his ofl'er to 1,000 guineas, his horse, etc. ; we told him again we would not 
let him go ; he then said, ' gentlemen, I will give you 10,000 guineas ' [nearly 
$o0,000] ■ and as many dry goods as you will ask ; conceal me in any place of safety 
while you can send to New York with an order to Sir Henry Clinton from me, and 
the goods and money will be procured so that you can get them unmolested.' [Paul- 
ding then told him, as he stated on the trial of Joshua H. Smith, a few days after 
the arrest] : ' No, by G — d, if you would give us 10,000 guineas you should not stir 
a step ; we are Americans, and above corruption, and go with us you must.' We 
then took him, about twelve miles, to Col. Jamison's quarters at North Castle." 

Note 8. — Letter of Col. Talmadge. 

[Written after Andre's death, it displays the intimate relations that sprung up between the 
writer and Andre, and the natural commiseration which had arisen in tbe former's heart.] 

"Poor Andre, who has been under my charge almost ever since he was taken, has 
yesterday had his trial, and though his sentence is not known, a disgraceful death 
is no doubt allotted to him. By heavens I Colonel Webb, I never saw a man whose 
fate I foresaw whom I so sincerely pitied I He is a young fellow of tbe greatest 
accomplishments, and was the prime minister of Sir Harry on all occasions. He has 
unbosomed his heart to me so fully, and, indeed, let me know almost every motive of 
his actions since he came out on his late mission, and he has endeared me to him 
exceedingly. Unfortunate man I He will undoubtedly suffer death. tomorrow, and, 
though he knows his fate, seems to be as cheerful as thougii he were going to an 
assembly. I am sure he will go to the gallows less fearful for his fate, and with 
less concern than I shall behold the tragedy. Had he been tried by a court of ladies, 
he is so genteel, handsome and polite a young gentleman, that I am confident they 
would have acquitted him. But enough of Andre, who, thougli he dies lamented, 
falls justly." 

The same officer, in other communications upon the subject, says: 

" From the moment that Andre made the disclosure of his name and true charac- 
ter, in his letter to the Commander-in-Chief, which he handed to me as soon as he 
had written it, down to the moment of his execution, I was almost constantly with 
him. I walked with him to the place of execution, and parted with him under the 
gallows, overwhelmed with grief that so gallant an officer and so accomplished a 
gentleman should come to such an ignominious end. The ease and alfability of his 
manners, polished by the refinement of good society, and a finished education, made 
him a most delightful companion. It often drew tears from my eyes to find him so 
agreeable in conversation on different sulijects, when I reflected on his future fate 
and that, too, as I believed, so near at hand." 

"When he came within sight of the gibbet, he appeared to be startled, and 
imiuired, with some emotion, whetluir he was not to be shot. Being informed that 
the mode first appointed for his death could not consistently be altered, he exclaimed, 
' How hard is my fate ! ' But immediately added, ' It will soon be over.' I then 
shook hands with him uiidc^r the gallows, and retired." 

Note 0. — See Raymond's oration, delivend at Tarrytown October T, 1853, on the 
completion of the monument erected by the young mei\ of Westchester county to 
the captors of Major Andre . 



230 Centennial Celebkations. 

Note 10. — lu Simms' History of Sclioharie County and Border Wars of New York, 
p. 404, it is related, in connection witli Sir JoUn Jolinson's invasion of this valley, 
that " Col. Johnson had with him a small mortar and a field-piece, the latter a six- 
pounder. The carriage for the cannon %vas carried in parts, and required screwing 
together." When the enemy approaclied the Lower Fort, to wit : the stone church 
with its massive tower, referred to in the original, it is related that the following 
incident occurred : " Col. Johnson halted, after crossing Fox's Creek. Preparations 
were now made to give the Americans a passing salute; the gun-carriage was screwed 
together, and tlie gun placed upon it. At this time it was supposed, by the men in 
the tower, from the ease with which the gun viras carried, and the manner of its 
transportation in a wagon, to be a ' peeled log,' olaced with the design of frighten- 
ing its inmates to surrender the fort. On applying the linstock it twice flashed, 
and the Americans were the more confirmed in their opinion that the fire was ' play- 
ing possum," but the third application of the match was followed by a peal of war's 
thunder, which sent a ball through one side of the roof of the church, and lodged 
it in a heavy rafter in the opposite side." This ball is now in the possession of a 
merchant in Schoharie. 

DESCRIPTION OP THE MONUMENT. 

Hon. DANiETi Knower furnishes the foUowins: description of the monument which is now 
completed, occupying a conspicuous position near the Old Fort and by the roadway. "It is a 
fine bluclv of Massaclmsetts marble and the worli is artistically executed. Tlie height of the 
monument is twenty -three feet and nine inches. The following are the dimensions: 

Base ■ - - - - - - - - -5 ft. 6 in. x 5 ft. B in. x 1 ft. 6 in. 

2d Base -.-. -..-4ft. 2 in. x 4 ft. 3 in. x 1 ft. 6 in. 

Die -.--- -----3 ft. 4 in. x li ft. 4 in. x 5 ft. in. 

Cap -.----.---4tt. 2 in. x i ft. 3 in. x 3 ft. 6 in. 

Spire - - - 1 ft. 10 in. X 1 ft. 10 in. x 13 ft. 3 in. 



23 ft. 9 in. high 



The following inscriptions, the production of Mr. Knowek himself, are engraved on the 
mouumeut: 

[East.] 
Here rest the remains of 
DAVID WILLIAMS. 
One of tlie Captors of 
Majok Andue, 
Died in Schoharie County, 
Aug. 3d, 1831, 
Aged 76 years, 6 mos., 8 days. 
He with his compatriots John Paulding and Isaac Van Wart, on the 33d of September, 1780, 
arrested Major John Andr6, and found on his person treasonable papers in the handwriting 
of Gen. Benedict Arnold, who sought by treachery to surrender the military post of West 
Point into the hands of tlie enemy. In resisting the great bribes of their prisoner for liis lib- 
erty, they showed their incorruptible Patriotism, the American Army was saved, and our 
beloved Country became free. 
Kngraved on medal — 

[South. ^ 
FIDELITT. 
By authority of Congress, 17S0, a silver medal was voted to them, and presented to the cap- 
tors by Gen. Wasliiiigton, ata dinner to whiciihe invited them while thearmy was encamped 
near Ver Plank's Point. 
The other side of the medal — 

[North.] 
VINCIT AMOR PATEI^. 
Gen. Washington's letter to the President of Congress, October, 1780: "The party that took 
Major .\ndi'(? acted in such a manner as does them the highest honor and proves them to be 
men of great virtue." 

[ll'fcsf 1 

NANCY BENEDICT, 

Wife of 

Daviii Williams, 

Died Aug. 5, 181t, ;igod 87 y's 6 m., 8 d's. 

This Monument was erected by the State of New Vorl< from an appropriation made in the 
Centenniiil year of 1870, by a bill' introduced by Senator W. C. Larnont, under tlie following 
State Coinraissioner.s: Daniel K.vowKfi, R.vlph Buewsteh, Chaui.ios Holmes. 



kltxxgl^rmtte* 



/C 



■.:'=* 





BUHGOYXE'S SURRENDER. 



The Celebration at Schtjyleryille, 

OCTOBER 17, 1877. 



AsBiirgoytie's surrender was the occasion of the most imposing cen- 
tennial celebration, being undoubtedly the most important event of the 
Revohitionary war, wliich occurred witliin the boundaries of New York 
State, and most probably within the area of the Revolution, it is fit to 
introduce it by the accompanying narrative of the celebration, written 
by Mr. Wm. L. Stone. It is the account derived from the pamphlet 
of the celebration, printed by the Saratoga Monument Association : 



THE PROCEEDmOS. 

At early day-break on the Centennial of Burgoyne's surrender, I stood 
upon the highly elevated plateau on which rests the foundation for the 
Saratoga Monument. A vast amphitheatre was spread at my feet. 
High as I was above the village of Schnylerville and the surrounding 
plain, or rather the whole region of country between the Kayaderosseras 
range on the west, the Green mountains on the east, and the Catskills on 
the south, the varieties of u))land and lowland were lost in the almost 
perpendicular line of vision in which thej"^ were presented to the view. 
As the dawn grew on apace, a gray jasper tinge slowly crept along 
the edge of the hori/.un. Flecks of pale sapphire gradually branched 
up, which, changing into shooting spires of emerald and chalcedony, 
grew inure and more distinct, until the entire eastern sky was bathed in 
the hues of the topaz and amethyst. As the day advanced, and the 
rays of light darted thicker and brighter across the heavens, the purple 
clouds which hung over Willanl's mountain were fringed with a saf- 
fron dye of inexpressible beauty. As the sun ascended above the hori- 
30 



234 Centennial Celebrations. 

zon — the broad glare of his beams being somewhat repressed by a 
dense atmosphere — tlie orb could be clearly defined by the naked eye. 
After it had gained the horizon the lesser spires below began to point 
their tall shadows toward me; a cheerful and mellow light gradually 
diffused itself around ; and the fog, which had rested upon the lower 
landscape, gently lifting, disclosed hill and vale, wood and river, in all 
their autumnal loveliness, standing sponsors for the new-born day. 

Wednesday, the 17th of October, 1877, was, indeed, a superb autumn 
day. The air was mild and balmy, and by nine o'clock not a cloud 
could be descried in any quarter of the heavens. It would seem as if 
the fates had deliberately combined to render the weather most 
auspicious. On the Monday previous, a cold, driving rain had set in ; 
and although it had partially cleared, yet the sun of Tuesdaj' had gone 
down in gloom ; while the wailing of the wind in the tall pines and the 
leaden clouds overhead gave every indication of another storm. Not- 
withstanding, however, these untoward signs and the continued inter- 
rogations " Will it ever clear up ? " the citizens of the patriotic little 
village of Sehuylerville continued the work of decoration late into the 
night. Early in the afternoon of the 16th the advance guard of the 
visitors, press-repoi'ters and delegates from different military and civic 
associations, began to arrive. Among these came Battery B, of Troy, 
Captain A. H. Geeen commanding, with twenty men and five brass 
twelve pounders, and, also. Captain Teact of the same city with twenty 
policemen, whose manly bearing and effective measures for preser\'ing 
the peace during the celebration received the deserved commendation 
of all lovers of order. In the evening, the village was generally illu- 
minated, giving to the colored decorations a really fine effect, and elicit- 
ing warm "encomiums for the tasteful manner in Avhich the ladies and 
gentlemen had performed their work. 

The following morning, a little before sunrise, the artillery men of 
Battery B turned out, and dividing into four squads proceeded in as 
many directions to the outskirts of the village where their cannons had 
previously been placed in position.* The day was formally ushered in 
by a salute of one hundred guns, the echoes of which had scarcely died 
away, when the people of Easton, from the heights of Willard's moun- 
tain, returned the greeting \vith the same number of guns. The bells 
of the churches then rane: out inerrilv, and the steam whistles from the 
factories in the vicinity blew their shrillest notes. The i-umbling of 

* These guns were placed respectively near the corner scone of the Saratoga monument; on the 
site of tlie camp of the British Gi-eniirtiers; on the hill back of Alonzo Welch's house where Gen- 
eral Morgan's rifiemen were statioiieil, and on the high bluft on the east side of the river, the site 
of old Fort Saratoga during the Frencli and Indian colonial wars, and, just previous to the sur- 
render, occupied by Col. Fellows with a battery. An eighteen pounder captured from the British 
in 1813, and presented to tlie Saratoga Monument Association by Frederick DePeyster and Gen. J. 
W. DePeyster, of New York City, was also placed near the corner stone. 



SCHUYLEKVILLE. 235 

wlieels alijiig tlie several roads leading into the village was now heard, 
and soon the streets wove astir M-ith wagons, carriages and omnibuses 
tilleil with people fi'om the surrounding country. In Sai'atoga Springs, 
twelve miles away, all tiie stores were closed, and a stillness, more than 
funereal, hung over its streets ; while the entire length of the road 
leading from that village to Schuylerville was, for more than fom- 
hours, covered with a continuous line of vehicles of every description 
— fi'om the field-wagon, with rough board seat and chains on which 
to rest the feet and drawn by oxen, to the handsome chariotee of 
the wealthy citizen.* Toward noon the military, masonic and other 
organizations that were to take part in the approaching pageant 
thronged into the town, and by mid-day the pavements and the win- 
dows and porches of the houses were filled with an expectant multi- 
tude anxious to secure a good view of the procession. f 

And well might the scene now presented rivet the eye. It is seldom 
that a spectacle, such as that which the streets and buildings of Schuy- 
lerville afi'orded on this occasion, is seen. As early as a week previous 
to the celebration, every flag, large or small, every yard, remnant and 
piece of colored goods to be found in any of the stores were purchased, 
to the great gratification of the merchants, who had feared that in their 
patriotic enthusiasm, they had been unwise in filling their shelves with 
so large a stock of red, blue and white goods. Nor were the decora- 
tions, so universally displayed, massed together in a heterogeneous man- 
ner without form or comeliness. Good judgment, a cultivated taste 
and a lavish expenditure of money gave to the public buildings, the 
hotels and the stores a brilliant and striking appearance ; while the 
facades of the houses adorned with biinting and various original devi- 
ces illustrative of scenes and incidents of a century ago, showed good 
taste and commendable patriotism. This, together with the bright and 
variegated colors of the autumn foliage in the yards and along the side- 
walks, did much to heighten the general effect. "When tins handsome 
adornment was so universal, to specify those residences that were more 
richly dressed than others would be invidious. So general, moreover, 
was the desire to create a good impression — when neighbor vied with 

* Benj.W. Amsden of No. 70 Lake avenue, says that on Wednesday momin.!; vehicles were pass- 
ing his place, en route to Schuylerville. lonp: before daybreak. Somewh:it surprised at the 
immense number of people moving in the dir-ection of the surrender ^roiuids. he bepran at six 
o'clock and kept a tally of each team that passed up to eleven o'clock, five hours, and found the 
number to he three hundred and fifty-four. .\s this is but one outlet to our village, some idea may 
be formed of Saratoga's delejration to the celebration when the other streets and avenues on the 
east side are taken into consideration. The number of Sarato;rians who attended the centennial 
could not have been less tlmn five thousand. — S'lratnfjiaii. Oct. l.Sth. 18i . . 

+ It was estimated h.v persons whose experience in larere pratherin^ of a like nature rendered 
them competent judges, that fully thirty thousand people were in the villape and upon the sur- 
render (pounds at noon on Wednesday. Had the conve.vance to the village been by railroad 
instead of stages and private teams, undoubtedly more than double that number would have been 
present. A more orderly and a nion- intellif;ent 'miniber of persotis, it wa.s repeatedly remarked 
during the day by participaius in the Oriskany. Henninijton and Bemus Heights celebrations, was 
uever observed in any other place where people were so closely brought together. 



236 Centennial Celeb rations. 

neighbor in beautifying their houses and places of business — that 
great would be the difficulty to know how or what to write in regard 
to the mottoes, buntings, banners and lanterns of each private dwelling. 

Among the public buildings thus decorated were the new school 
building, the engine-house and the churches of St. Stephen and of the 
Visitation. The Dutch Reformed church wreathed garlands of the 
red, white and blue around its Doric pillars, and the Methodists also 
expressed their patriotism by a fine display of flags and streamers. 
The Goldsmith and Gaily Houses were profusely hung with bunting 
and colored lanterns, and the Schuylerville House presented a pic- 
turesque front with its heavy festoonings of evergreens interwoven 
with the red berries of the bay. Suspended over the main street at a 
prominent point was a pictorial representation of the surrender. Bur- 
goyne was painted in the act of handing his sword to Gates, while 
underneath the scene was inscribed the British general's remark : " The 
fortune of war. General Gates, has made me your prisoner." At a 
number of points, from newly erected flag-staffs, American colors were 
floating ;* and here and there one saw now a portrait of George Wash- 
ington, and again one of Pliilip Schuyler, Morgan or some other old 
hero in a frame of evergreen. Nor was this kind of work confined to 
Schuylerville. Standing near the site of the monument the eye took 
in, for uiiles around, flags waving from poles set up for the nonce 
before innumerable farm-houses. In the distance, snugly nestled 
among the lower spurs of the Green mountains, the pretty villages of 
Greenwich and Middle Falls looked Mke two fleets riding at anchor, 
their tall masts flying gaily colored penants as if for some great naval 
victory. Saratoga and Washington counties seemed in ver^' truth to 
have hung their banners upon the outer walls. Indeed, as it was well 
said at the time, " What, with the vivid hues of autumn upon the 
trees, and the vivid hues of patriotism upon the houses, the village and 
its vicinage looked as gay and attractive as did the splendid army of 
Burgoyne, as it sailed up Lake Champlain in June, 1777, when tlie sun 
shone on the scarlet coats of British grenadiers, and on the bright 
lielmets of the German dragoons."'!' 

As the troops of the several commands arrived they reported to the 
Grand Marshal, General W. B. Feench, on Schuyler Square, where 
tliey were assigned positions. In consequence, however, of tlie late 
arrival of the more distant organizations, it was noon before tiie Mai'- 

♦Oneof these flag-poles, at the corner of Pearl and Burgoyne streets, is one hundred and fifty feet 
in height; another, close by the corner stone of tlie monument, is one hundred and sixty feet 
high. Each of these poles is surmounted by a large glass ball; and the one planted by the corner 
stone may be readily seen by the aid of a field glass by the citizens of Saratoga Springs, twelve 
miles distant. These flag-staffs were both the work of Mr. Giles P. Lang, of Schuylerville. 

tMr. McElroy, in the Albany Eveniuu Journal. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 237 

sbal and liis aids had arranged tliem into column.* Finally, the report 
of a cannon told that all was in readiness ; and at half-past twelve 
o'clock the procession, headed by a platoon of Troy police, tiled out of 
the square into Gates avenue, General Frenoh and his staff gallantly 
leading the way. The line of march was from Gates avenue to Grove 
sti'eet, thence to Pearl ; from Pearl to Burgoyne ; down Burgoyne to 
Broad ; up Bi-oad to Spring ; thence to Church, to Burgoyne, to Pearl, 
to Saratoga, to Green and up Burgoyne avenue to the monument 
grounds adjoining Prospect Hill Cemetery. 

A volume would scarce suffice to detail the particulars necessary to 
a full description of the flags and emblems and patriotic decorations 
which graced the arches imder which passed the many divisions and 
sub-divisions of this imposing pageant; nor yet to give the incidents 
which, like the fragments of a splendid vision, are still floating in bright 
and glowing masses through the imagination. But the spectacle was 
too brilliant and the scenes too various for the memory to retain more 
than certain vague impressions no less beautiful than indistinct. Those 
who were present and saw the magniflcent scene on that lovely autumn 
day — while it gave them an idea of the appearance of the two armies 
one hundred years ago at that very hour and on that very spot — will 
at once admit that it cannot be painted in language ; and those who 
had not that happiness, must content themselves with the assurance 
that the best endeavors of the wTiter to convey to them an adequate 
idea of its effect will fail. 

The first arch (tastily draped with flags and bunting) under which 
the procession marched, was at the corner of Green and Pearl streets, 
near the handsomely adorned residences of C. W. Mayhew, and G. W. 
Watson. The next one was at the junction of Burgoyne and Pearl 
streets in front of tlie Dutch Beformed church. Upon it in letters 
of evergreen wei'e the words of welcome ascribed by some to Gates 
on his first meeting the defeated British general : " I am glad to see 
you,"t with the century dates of Oct 17th, 1777, and 1S77; the right 
and left of the center inscription bearing the names (also in evergreen), 
of Schuyler, Gates and Morgan. At the corner of Burgoyne and 
Broad streets another arch, festooned with laurel, spanned the road ; 
while a little further on and opi)Osito the Methodist parsonage, a grace- 
ful arch, thrown across the street, bore on its south side the legend, 
"Metlidilisra honors the occasion," and on the north, " Methodism 

* Gen. Frknch deserves much credit for the skill with which he held the procession intnct along 
the line of inarch. No break or impediment caused any of those halts or separations that so fre- 
quently occur on occasions <if this kind. 

+ ** U i.'i the custom in England, and in .\nierica on approaching anybody for the first time 
to say, * I am very happy to see you." General Gates chanced to make use of this expression 
in accostlne General Iluriroyne; * I tidicvc ;/(»» ntT,' replied the general, the fortune of the day 
Is entirely yours.' "— Trttvr.ls in JVorth Amcriaiin 1780- U, by the Marquis Dc ClhialcUiu. 



238 Centennial Celebrations. 

reveres the heroes of 1777." On the lawn, in front of the Marshall 
House,* fi-om a tall libert}' pole floated the stars and stripes, and a lit- 
tle distance from the foot of Burgoyne avenue on the main street, an 
old elm, whose trunk was wreathed with the " red, white and blue," 
bore this inscription : " Near this spot, Oct. 17, 1777, American and 
British officers met and consummated the articles of capitulation of 
General Bui-goyne to General Gates ; and on this ground the British 
laid down their arms thus securing American independence." Stand- 
ing on the roof of the Grecian portico of D. L. Potter's dwelling, the 
Goddess of Liberty, in life size, shone resplendent in a starry crown 
and a skirt made of the American flag. Within the court-yard of 
Alanson Welch — the site of the old Revolutionary Barracks — 
stood a large marquee from the top of which were unfurled the Amer- 
ican and British colors; while on the north-west corner of Pearl and 
Ferry streets a wooden monument was placed, having upon one of its 
sides the following lettering : 

Saratoga, 

Bemus Heights, 

Bennington, 

Oeiskant. 

Lexington and Concoed. 

The eye of beauty, too, gazed with delight upon the passing scene. 
Every window was thronged ; and the myriads of handkerchiefs 
which fluttered in the air were only rivaled in whiteness by the delicate 
hands which suspended them ; while the glowing cheeks, the ingenu- 
ous smiles of loveliness and innocence, and the intelligence which 
beamed brightly from many a sparkling eye, proclaimed their possess- 
ors worthy of being the wives, mothers and daughters of freemen. It 
was in fine a proud spectacle ; but language fails in attempting its de- 
scription — much more in imparting to paper the sensations which it 
created. It is not difficult to describe individual objects correctly, but 
it is impossible to portray their general effect when happily grouped 
together. We rejoiced, and all who were there rejoiced ; although, as 
we looked upon the countless throng, we could not but remember the 

* *' A hundred years ajro from yesterday, in the cellar of the house, at present occupied by 
Mrs. Jane M. Marsliall, there was apitifiil picture of a few crouching, terror-striclcen women 
and children, and a number of wounded, hunjrry soldiers; a century later, yesterday, upon 
the lawn of the same house, there was a joyous, patriotic company of wives and maidens, 
raisine into the air a liberty pole whereon, in a few days shall float the plorious eml>lem of 
freedom and victory. With the dark memories of that house upon their minds did these 
women lift ah)ft with willini: hands tlie celebrating staff of its peace and domestic I'lve. The 
sad records of iVIadanie Riedesel stand in dark contrast with this lionorary act of Mrs. J. M. 
Marshall, Mrs. Georse W. Smith, Miss Jennie Marshall (the two latterthe former's dauKhters), 
Mrs. Chas. Dartram of Greenpoint. L. T., Mrs. Wesley Buck and Mrs. Joseph Hudson of this 
viliaKe. The pole Is ei:;htv-nine feet from the ground and will float a flag twelve by fourteen 
feet."— Si'hiiiilrrrill: SlmtdnnU Ucl. l.i. 1S77. 

Mrs. Marshall also, gave the two Albany companies of the Twenty-flfth regiment, the day 
after the celebration, an elegant dinner set outon the lawn. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 239 

exclamation of Xerxes, and feel that " a linndred years hence, Tiot one 
of all that vast multitude will be alive." 

Immediately behind the police, and leading the procession proper, 
came the popular Doring's band of Troy, composed of twenty-six 
pieces. Folluwiug these, and marching by platoons, were Company F, 
Tenth regiment N. Y. S. N. G., Captain George D. WEmiiAN com- 
manding, and Company I, Twenty-fifth regiment, under Captain 
Walker. Both companies wore a neat gray uniform, and by their 
soldierly bearing did credit to the capital city. Colt's armory band of 
twenty pieces, one of the choicest musical organizations in the land, 
and clad in scarlet, followed next in order ; and directly after them 
were the Governor's Foot Guards of Hartford, Conn., commanded by 
Major AV. PI. Talcoit. The presence, on this occasion, of the Foot 
Guards, was particulary fortunate and most appropriate. Dressed in the 
rich and peculiar style of the time of George III — beai--skin caps, scarlet 
coats, knee-breeches, and black velvet leggins with silver buckles on 
their shoes — they gave to the spectators a correct idea of the appear- 
ance of Burgoyne's " Eed-eoats," at the time of the surrender. 
Accompanying the Foot Guards were the Veterans of the corps in 
citizen's dress, wearing Kossuth hats and crimson badges.* Tlie 
Park Guards' band, one of Vei-mont's best, with the Park Guards of 
Bennington, Capt. N. O. Wilcox, made a striking appearance in their 
grenadier hats and steel gray uniforms. Having taken part in the 
Bennington centennial, it gave them pleasure to participate in Sara- 
toga's celebration. It was one of the best equipped commands on the 
ground. As the procession moved by, the next command that passed 
along was the Hughes Light Guards of South Glens Falls, Captain 
Gleesettle. This company has only recently been organized, but the 
members carried themselves like vetei-ans, reflecting credit on the most 
northerly town in Saratoga county. The Whitehall Cornet band then 
filed past, leading the well-known and ])opular Burleigh Corps of 
Whitehall, Lieutenant Basdosi commanding. The Guards and Corps 
were dressed in the regulation dark and light blue, and wore the shako, 
and made a creditable appearance. This military array was followed 
by the Knights Templar, their gay trappings, in the bright sunlight of 
an unclouded sky, being sufficiently gorgeous to have tilled the eye of 
a Persian emperor in the height of oriental splendor and magnificence. 

• The Governor's Foot Otmnls were chartered in 1771. In October, 1777. it started for Saratoga 
to offer its services to Gates, though organized specially as a bodyguard to the governor and 
general assonilily of the colony of Connectirnt. The company, under the command of Captain 
.lonathan Bull, riiarched as far as the Riiinebeck flats, wliere, being met by an express with the 
new.qof Burgoyne's surrender, they returned lionie. The battalion now numbers ahout one hun- 
dred, inelU'ling a band of twenty-five pieces. ,Taues Blti.l, now living at Saratoga .Springs, 
is a grandson of Captain .Innatltjin Bull, and was a member of the guards fifty years ago. His 
father. Isaac D Dull, was the llrst major of the organization when it l)ecame a battalion in 1813, 
serriug until 1816. 



240 Centennial Celebrations. 

The Knights Templar constituted the second division of the proces- 
sion, whicli was under the command of very eminent Grand Com- 
mander Chaeles H. Holden, assisted by Sir Knight B. F. Judson. 
Preceding the Washington Coinmandery of Saratoga Springs was the 
Ballston Cornet band, dressed in a showy dark blue uniform. Then 
came the Seventy-seventh regiment band of Saratoga Springs, com- 
posed of twenty-two pieces, and dressed in military uniform, followed 
by the Apollo Commandery of Troy and the Temple Commandery of 
Albany. These eommanderles, together with Washington Command- 
ery, sustained well their reputation as among the finest appearing and 
best drilled organizations of Sir Knights in the State. The Mozart 
band of Schenectady, uniformed in white, came next in order preced- 
ing the commanderies of St. George of Schenectady, De Soto of 
Plattsburgh, Holy Cross of Gloversville, Lafayette of Hudson, Little 
Falls of Little Falls, Killington of Rutland, Vermont, and the Teiit 
of Bennington of the same State. The Schuylerville Cornet band 
was the next to pass, followed by the Master Masons, who preceded 
the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. Along the whole exten- 
sive line of march each of the different organizations was received 
with continual cheers, a circumstance which added not a little to the 
animation of the scene. 

The Saratoga Centennial Cavalry, Major T. S. Fassett commanding, 
brought up the rear. This company numbered upward of eighty horse- 
men, and attired in the attractive uniform of Gates's Continentals, they 
elicited much praise from the bystanders whenever they appeared. This 
cavalcade fonned the escort, or rather the rear guard, to the orators, 
poets, officers of the day, members of the Saratoga Monument Associa- 
tion and invited guests, who, seated in open carriages, formed the civic 
portion of the procession. In one of the carriages were Horatio Sey- 
MouE, George William Curtis and Alfred B. Street, each wearing 
on his breast, not the gorgeous insignia of the courts of kings, but — 
typical of Republican simplicity — a silk badge, on which was attached 
a plain rosette made of the dry leaves of the palmetto.* Among the most 
honored guests were ex-Senator Foster, of Connecticut, whose father 
was in both battles of Bemus Heights, and George L. Schuyler, of 
New York, a grandson of Gen. Philip Schuyler. Li another carnage, 
also, rode Albert Clements, aged ninety-six, George Strover, eighty- 
six, and William H. McCreedy, eighty-six, the three oldest men in the 
village, and honored both for their own sakes and from having once 
been the neighbors of Gen. Schuyler. The presence of these three 

* At the topof the badge is printed tlie word "Gates." and at the bottom, "Saratoga, October 
17th, ]8"7.'" Tlie badges were the gift of Gen. Stephen D. Kirk, of Charleston, S. C. Gen KiiiK 
accompanied the gifts with appropriate patriotic sentiments. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 241 

venerable, but still hale and hearty, nllage sires, and the distinguished 
ex-Senator Fostkr, carried back the minds of the beholders so vividly 
to those " times that tried men's souls," that they no longer seemed to 
belong to the " dim past," but to the vitality of the actual present. It 
had been expected that Governor Robinson, of New York, Governor 
Rice, of Massachusetts, and Van Zandt, of Rhode Island, would be 
present ; but illness kept them all away. The governor of New York 
was represented by members of his military family. 

The procession was more than a mile in length, and contained nearly 
three thousand people. It was, indeed, a pageant of indescribable in- 
terest, and, to most, of double attraction, the occasion being one in 
which the deepest sympathies were enlisted, and it being also altogether 
the finest display of pomp and circumstance ever witnessed in northern 
New York. 

A large part of the population of Saratoga and Washington counties 
had given themselves up to the enjoyment of the occasion ; and glad- 
ness, in all its fullness, was depicted in every countenance, while a noble 
enthusiasm s\\-elled every bosom. The bond of union was complete : 
and eveiT man, carrying himself back one hundred years, felt as though 
his country had been rescued, in the last hour, from the most imminent 
peril. 

The head of the procession reached the open square in front of the 
monument at half-past one o'clock. The right of line then opened, and 
the Grand Lodge advanced to its position, being surrounded b}- the 
subordinate lodges formed in a square. The command eries made the 
same formation outside of the lodges, while the military beyond the 
commanderies encircled them, having in their rear a vast concourse of 
citizens, estimated at twelve thousand. The various bands of music 
which had enlivened the march of the procession were concentrated in 
the inclosure, but so disposed as not to intercept the prospect. The 
Grand Lodge occupied a position upon the foundation of the monu- 
ment, and thus the Masonic ceremonies, which were conducted in the 
usual form, were in full view of the multitude. 

After the corner-stone had been laid, the procession was reformed ; 
and, amid the firing of cannons, counter-marched to the speaking 
grounds on Schuyler Square, wliere two stands had been built, on which 
floated the American and British flags. At tlie soutliern stand, where 
Hon. Charles S. Lester of Saratoga Springs presided, the orations of 
IIoKATio Seymour and George Wilt.iaii Cfrtis, and the addresses of 
Judge Lester and Lafayette S. Foster were delivered together with 
the poem of Alfreo B. Street, read by Col. E. P. Howe of Saratoga 
Springs. The short impromptu speech by Senator Foster was pecu- 
Jia,rly timely and fitting, and of extraordinary interest, owing to the 



242 Centennial Celebrations. 

fact tliat he had often listened to the story of the battle from the lips 
of his father, who was lieutenant and adjutant of one of the Connecti- 
cut regiments on the Amei'ican side. 

At the northern stand, Hon. Geoege W. Schptlee, in the absence 
of Gen. E. F. Bullaed, was called upon to pj-eside. At this stand 
were delivered the historical address of William L. Stone, and the 
speeches of B. W. Thkockmoeton of New Jersey, Judge Austin 
A. Yates of Schenectady, and 11. L. Gladdlnct of Albany. Gen- 
eral James Geant Wilson (the biographer of Fitz Green Halleck) 
read that poet's Meld of the Qrounded Arms, and the Eev. D. K. 
Van Doeen,. of Schuylerville, a poem by General J. Watts De 
Peystee, prepared expressly for the occasion. A new version of the 
Star Spangled Banner, by Col. B. C. Butlee of Luzerne, IST. Y., 
was then read by William L. Stone, and the exercises closed 
by the reading, by Col. Ritchie, of letters from Benson J. Lossing, 
Mrs. Ellen H. Walwoeth, Giles B. Slocum, and General Stephen 
D. KiEK of Charleston, South Carolina. 

It had been the intention to close the celebration with a brilliant 
military spectacle representing the surrender of Burgoyne to the Con- 
tinental troops. It was, however, almost dusk when the speaking was 
finished ; and, accordingly. Judge Lestee, in dismissing the audience, 
stated that the Connecticut boys* refused to surrender, and that the 
exercises would therefore be brought to an end by a dress parade. 

While the literary exercises at the stands were holding, thousands of 
people who could not get within hearing distance, amused themselves 
by strolling about the village and visiting the siu'render grounds, the 
remains of old Fort Hardy, the Marshal House (in the cellar of which 
Mrs. Riedesel took refuge during the cannonade) and the "Relic 
Tent" containing a sword said to have belonged to Burgoyne, the 
" Eddy collection," and many other interesting trophies. The Schuyler 
Mansion, built by General Schuyler near the site of the one burned 
by Burgoyne and owned and occupied by Geoege Stkovee, was also 
an object of special attraction during the entire day.f The conti- 
nental cavalry from Saratoga Sj)rings, upon its arrival in the village, 
proceeded thither in a body and saluted the house and its occupants. 
Among the large number of persons who partook of the hospitalities 
of the house were ex-Governor Seymoue, Geoege William Cijetis, H. 
A. Homes, State Librarian, Hon. Geoege W. Schuyler, Alfekd B. 

♦The Governor's Foot Guards, who were to personate British troops. 

tThisis agood opportunity to correct the common error — into which I have myself fallen in 
my Life, of Oeveral Kiedexcl —that the present Schuyler Mansion was built by the American 
army within ten days after the surrender. The massive foundation of the house is sufficient of 
itself to refute this idea; but if more evidence is required, we have the testimony of the Marquis 
de Chastellux, who, visiting Gen. Schuj'ler at Saratoga in 1783- five years after the surrender- 
says that "there is nothing to be seeu but some barns and the ruins of General Schuyler's house." 



SCHUYLEBVILLE. 243 

Street, B. ^Y. Throckmorton, Judge A. A. Yates, II. L. Gladding, 
ChjVKLEs S. Lester and many other proniinunt men. Speaking within 
bounds, at least three thousand people, during tiie day and evening, 
visited tiie house. The large portico with its high columns were 
adorned with curtains elegantly folded, and with wreaths and festoons 
of laurels disposed with beautiful and tasteful effect. Over the door- 
way was suspended the musket, cartridge-box and powder-horn used 
by Col. Strover in the war of 1812. Immediately after the exercises 
of the laying of the corner stone, the Governor's Foot Guard of Hart- 
ford, escorted by Major J. C. Parson of the veteran corps, and Major 
W. H. Talcott, with Colt's Military Band, marched to the house ; and, 
upon its arrival on the lawn, paraded in line and saluted the old man- 
sion and Colonel and Mrs. Strover, the living representatives of the 
eighteenth century. The Guards then stacked arras, and upon enter- 
ing the hospitable mansion were tendered refreshments. They in- 
spected all the quaint and curious things which till the house from 
cellar to garret. Upon their departure, a parting salute was given ; 
and the band, which had executed for the large number of guests 
assembled on the portico and lawn, a number of brilliant pieces of 
music, then played " Home, Sweet Home," and marched across the 
bridge into the village. Major W. H. Talcott was heard to remark 
that this visit of the Guards " was one of the most pleasing which he 
should remember with the laying of the corner stone of the Saratoga 
Monument." 

"When at length the sun went down behind the heights upon which 
Burgoyne had pitched his camp, the multitude slowly dispersed and 
wended its way through the streets of the village. Broad street took 
the appearance of Broadway, New York city, and was a thoroughfare 
of closely packed hacks^, stages, wagons and liorsemen passing and 
re-passing toward the several roads leading to their homes. At night, 
the street with its pendent flags and gayly colored illuminated lanterns ; 
its thronging people ; the wild vociferations of the street venders ; the 
passing of uniformed .soldiers ; and the out-going stages filled with 
departing visitors, made it a scene not soon to be forgotten by the 
citizens of Schuylerville.* 



•The centennial exercises were continued at Sehuylerville throughout the foUowinR day. The 
village presented a beautiful appearance, the artistic decorations and beauties still atiractinc 
attention. Though the crowd was not as large as the previous day. yet there were thousands t»f 
people present — all happy at beinfj able to "assist in i>rolonping tlie exercises of the preceding 
day. In till' l.'irt;!' t'*n(s on ,'^(■llll.^*lt•r siniare hundreds were banqueted, the supply of provisions 
furnished bc'inj,' nii.r.' ihaii aniiily suilli-icnt to meet all the demands made upon it. The grand 
stands were crowded ilui-iii;^ most of tlie da.v. and the corner stone was visited bj* thousands of 
peojile. The exercises of tlie dav were interspersed with local speeches, music, and a military 
display by companies F of the fentli regiment, and I of the 'rweniy-flfth. The occasion was a 
most joyous one; and to sum up, the citizens of Sclniylerville have reason to feel proud at the 
success of the Centennial Celebration of lH77.—f!cliu!ili ri'ilh- St'imlm-d. 

Nor, before bringing our narrative to a close, shouM we neglect to speak of the hospitality dis- 
played, not only of the pmple of Sehuylerville. but :dso of those of Victory .Mills, of Northumber- 
land, of Easton and of Greeuwicb. These people gave a hearty and hospitable welcome to all. 



244 Centennial Celebrations. 

As night shut in the air became cliilly, and the wind, whicli had 
seemingly waited nntil the celebration was ended, now swept around 
the massive foundation of the monument and over the high table land 
with a hoarse, sullen roar. But as midnight approached the breeze 
was lulled to silence, tiie lights of the village disappeared ; the ditt'er- 
ent sounds from the haunts of men ceased ; and a gentle silence reigned 
around. Above hung a broad and sable canopy studded with count- 
less planets ; and around stretched the weird-looking horizon appar- 
ently dying away into the gloom of that strange firmament. But as it 
drew on toward the dawn, the stars, led off by the twin Pleiades, 
tripped away and disappeared one by one ; and the light of another 
day rested on the ground where but a little while before had been 
gathered a vast multitude, and -where, amid the swelling strains of 
martial music, had been collected and displayed, in one grand view, 
the flags, and emblems, and costly decorations, which in a continued 
procession called forth such enthusiasm of admiration. It was one of 
those few bright visions whose evanescent glory is allowed to light up 
the path of human life — which, as they are passing, we feel can never 
return ; and which, while diifusiug a sensation of pleasing melancholy, 
leads up the mind to contemplation. The splendor of beauty and the 
triumph of art serve to excite, dazzle and often to improve the condi- 
tion and ]5romote the welfare of mankind ; but " the fashion of this 
world passeth away ; '" beauty and art, with all their triumphs and 
splendors, endure but for a season ; and earth itself, with all its lakes 
and oceans, its woods and mountains, is only as the small dust of the 
balance in the sight' of Him who dwells beyond the everlasting hills, 

OFFICEKS OF THE DAY. 

Presidents. 

Hon. Chables S. Lester, Saratoga Springs, Gen. Edward F Bullahd, Saratoga Springs, 
N. Y. N. Y. 

Vice-Presidents. 

George L. Schptleb, New York City. James McFarland, New Jersey. 

Philip Schuyler, " " Ethan Ai.len, New York 

Hon. Charles 0'(Jonob, New York. Wm. H. Thomas, Bergen, N. J. 

William Cullen Bryant, " Hon. John. H. Starin, Fiiltonville. 

Hon. Hamilton Fish, New York. Parker Handy, New York. 

Ex-Governor Hoffman, " John F. Seymour, Utica. 
Hon. Frederick DePeyster, Pres. N. Y. Hon. B. W. Throckmorton, Bergen, N. J. 

Historical Society. Hon. Henry Q. Koot, Bennington, Vt. 

Every one appreriated the bounteous refresliments provided by them and departed with loud 
spoken compliments and thanks for the goodly entertainment. Mr. Daniel A. Bullard, also, 
wasnot only one of the staiinohe.st promoters of the Sar.itoga Monument, but on the day ot the 
celebration, assisted by his lovely wife, entertained at his hospitable mansion Horatio Seymour, 
George William Curtis. Henry A, Homes, Geiirgk L .Schuyler, Alfred B. Street, Senator 
Foster. James M. Marvin, Gen. Wilson, B. W. Throckmorton, Governor Robinson's staff 
and many others. 



SCHUYI.ERVILLE. 245 

Hon. George W. Curtis, New York. Maj. A B. Valentine, nennington, Vt. 

Manton Marulj:. " Hon. M. S. Colbukn, Manchester, Vt. 

Henky B. D.wvsoN, " ExUov. JOH.v B. Paoe, Rutland, 

H.in. ELLI3 H. UoBEKTS, Utica. Lt.-Gov. UedfieldS. ruoCTOK, Rutland, Vt. 

Hon. Wlllia.m J. Bacon, " Lt.-Gov. E. J. 1'helps, Burlington, Vt. 

E. F. DeLancev, New York City. Ex-Gov. John W. Stewaiit, Middlebury, Vt. 

Tao.MAS W. Olcott, Albany. Hon. Frederick K Woodbridge, Vernen- 

JoEL .MuNSELL, " nes, Vt. 

J. V. L. Pruvn, " Wm. H. Clement, Morrow, Ohio. 

Hon KoBEiiT S. Hale, Elizabethtown. N. Y President Potter, Union College, Schen- 

O. H. Marshall, Buffalo, N. Y. ectady. 

Hon. HiLAND Hall, Bennington, Vt. Col. Clarence S B.4tf., Louisville, Ky. 

C. >I. Bliss, Sec. Benniugton Mon. Ass'n, Col. John Hav, Cleveland, Ohio. 
Bennington, Vt. General Stephen D. Kirk, Charleston, South 

Giles B. Slocu.\!, Trenton, Mich. Carolina. 

Besides a large nuinljer of otliei's. 

Secretaries. 

W. L. Stone, Secretary jronument Associa- R. L. Palmateer, Waterford. 
tion. New York. H. C. Morhodse, Greenwich. 

E. .W B. Casking, Cor. Sec. Saratoga Menu- H. D. Morris, Salem. 

ment Ass'n. H. T. Blanchard, Fort Edward. 

D. F. Ritchie, A. S. Pease, E. J. HcLn»'c, J. L. McArtror, Granville. 
Saratoga Springs J. H. Cushman, Benniugton. 

H. L. Grose, W. S.W.4TERBURY,BallstonSpa. 

Grakd IIakshal. 
Gen. W. B. Fresch, Saratoga Springs. 

Assistant Maeshals. 

Saratoga Spnncrs— Capt. B. F. Judsox, Col. F. R. Asdfs, Maj. W. J Riggs, Surgeon Wm 
H. Hall, Col. Hira.m Rodoers. Col. B. C. Butler, Col. Wm. Q Barrett, Capt. A. A. Pat- 
terson, J. W Lester, R. A. Hemingway, Capt. W W. Worden, Capt. James M. Andrews, 
Jr., Hiram Owen, Maj. E. T. Brackett, Capt. E. P. Howe, Ebenezer Holmes, Capt. P. 

F. Allen, Samuel F. Corey. 

Bu!l*m Sjw — Col. C. T. PEfK, Capt W. W French. 

Stillimter — Capt. L. Van Demark, Capt. Thomas. 

GreemcicU ~ Dr . Gr.ay'. 

Scftuyifn'iHf — Capt. George Robinson, D.,S. Potter, A. 'Welch, J. S. Dillenbeck, C. H. 
McNaughto.v, S. McCreedy, P. S. Wheeler, Dr. N. C. Harris, Lieutenants Dit-linbeck, 
Fletcher, Pennock. 

AViany — Gen DiCKERMAN. 

Troy — Gen. Carr. 

Sandy ffWi — Gen. Charles Hughes. 

Luzerne — Col. B. C. Butler. 

Tlie following was the order of the day as issued bv the Chief 
Marshal : 

National salute at sunrise by Battery B, Capt.ain A. H. Green. The procession 
will be formed on Schuyler square, 11 : 30 A. M., in the following order: 

First Division. ' 

Platoon of Police; Gen.W. B. Frencu, chief marshal, and staff; Boring's Band 
of Troy; Co. F's Drum Corps; Co. F, Tenth regiment. Captain George D. 
Weidman, commanding, of Albany; Co. I's Drum Corps; Co. I, Twenty-fifth 
regiment, Capt. Walker, commanding, of Albany; First Company Governor's 
Foot Guards of Hartford, Conn., in old English uniform worn in the reign of 
George III; W. II. Talcott, Maj. Com. Battalion; Colt's Band, Hartford, Conn., 



246 Centennial Celebrations. 

Thos. G. Adkins, leader; Capt. A. H. Wiley Com. first company; Lieut. R. D. 
BuRUiCK Com. second company; Lieut. S. E. Hascall Com. third company; 
Lieut. W. E. Eaton, Com. fourtli company ; Park Guards Band ; Park Guards of 
Bennington, Vt., Capt. O. N. Wilcox, commander; Hughes Light Guards of 
Glen's Falls, Capt. Gleesbttle, commanding ; Whitehall Band ; Bm-leigh Corps, 
Capt. Thomas Hall, commanding, Whitehall Band. 

Second Division. 

Sir TowNSBND Fonda, R. E. Grand Commander; Sir Chaeles H. Holden, V. 
D. Grand Commander; Sir Knight B. F. Judson; Ballston Spa Cornet Band; 
Washington Commandery of Saratoga Springs; Seventy-seventh Regiment Band, 
Saratoga Springs ; Apollo Commandery of Troy ; Temple Commandery No . 2, of 
Albany ; Schenectady Band ; St. George's Commandery Ko. 37, Schenectady, N. 
Y. ; De Soto Commandery No. 49, of Plattsburgh ; Schuylerville Band ; Holy 
Cross Commandery, Gloversville, N. Y. ; Lafayette Commandery, Hudson, N. Y. ; 
Little Falls Commandery, Little Falls, N. Y. ; Killington Commandery, Rutland, 
Vt. ; TefEt Commandery, Bennington, Vt. ; Master Masons ; Ashler Lodge, No. 584, 
Greenwich, N. Y. ; Montgomery Lodge, No. 504, Stillwater, N. Y. ; Schuyler 
Lodge, No. 676, Schuylerville, N. Y. ; Rising Sun Lodge, No. 103, Saratoga 
Springs, N. Y. ; Fort Edward Lodge, No. 267, Fort Edward, N. Y. ; Home 
Lodge, No. 398, Northumberland, N. Y. ; Grand Master of Master Masons of the 
State of New York, M. W. J. J. Couch ; Grand -Lodge of the State of New York. 

Third Division. 

Capt. W. W. WoRDEN, assistant marshal, commanding; New York State olE- 
cials; Presidents of the day; orators; poets; speakers; clergy and chaplain in 
carriages ; Bemus Heights Centennial committee ; the Saratoga Monument Asso- 
ciation; descendants of Revolutionary soldiers; invited guests; Continental 
Cavalry, from Saratoga, Major Fassett, commanding; his excellency Governor 
Robinson, represented in the person of General J. B. Stonbhotjse and Colonel 
A. H. Taylor. 

ROUTE OF MARCH. 

Gates avenue to Grove street ; Grove to Pearl ; Pearl to Burgoyne ; Burgoyne to 
Broad ; Broad to Spring ; Spring to Church ; Church to Burgoyne ; Burgoyne to 
Pearl ; Pearl to Saratoga ; Saratoga to Green ; Green to Burgoyne ; Burgoyne 
to Monument grounds, where a hollow square will be formed by the military out- 
side the Knight Templars, and the corner stone of the Monument laid by M. W. 
J. J. Cough, Grand Master, and R. W. Edmund L. Judson, Deputy Grand Master 
Masons of the State of New York. After which ceremony the procession will 
march down Burgoyne to Pearl ; Pearl to Grove, thence to Schuyler square, where 
the following exercises will take place at the 

First Grand Stand. 

Music, Doring's Band. 
Prayer, Rev. Rufus W. Clark, D. D., of Albany, Chaplain. 

Music. 

Introductory address by the President of the Day, 

Hon. Charles S. Lester. 

Music. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 247 

Oration by Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour. 

Oration by George Whliam Curtis. 

Music. 

Poem, by Ai.kked B. Street, 

Read by Col. E. P. Howe. 

Music. 

Address by IIou. Lafayette S. Foster. 

Second Grand Stand. 

Music, Colt's Army Band, Hartford, Conn. 

Prayer, Rev. J. E. King, of Fort Edward, N. Y., Chaplain. 

Music. 

Introductory address. Hon. George W. Schuyler, Acting President of the Day. 

Music. 

Historical address by William L. Stone. 

Address by Hon. B. W. Throckmorton, of New Jersey. 

Music. 

Fitz Green Halleck's Field of the Oronnded Arms, read by Halleck's Biographer, 

Gen. James Grant Wilson. 

Addresses by Hon. A. A. Yates and H. L. Gladdlng. 

Ode by Gen. J. Watts DePeyster, 

Read by Rev. D. K. V.\n Doren. 

The Star Spangled Banner, arranged for the anniversary of Burgoyne's surrender 

by Col. B. C. Butler, 

Read by William L. Stone. 

Letters from Benson J. Lossing, Mrs. Ellen H. Walworth, Giles B. Slocum 

and Stephen D. Kirk, of Charleston, S. C, 

Read by Col. D. F. Ritchie. 

Short addresses, by Hon. Algernon S. Sullivan and E. L. Fuksman. 

GRAND BANQUET. 

Brilliant Military spectacle representing the surrender of Burgoyne's army. 

■ LAYING OF THE CORNEE STONE. 

The ceremony of placing the comer stone in its position was con- 
ducted by M. "W. J. J. Couch, Grand Master of Masons of the State 
of New York, with the cei-enionies usual to so important an occasion. 
The Grand Treasurer placed in the corner stone articles prepared by 
the trustees as follows : ' 

List of Articles Deposited in the Corner Stone of the Saratoga Mon- 
ument, Oct. 17th, 1877. 

A history of the Saratoga Monument Association by its secretary, Wm. L. Stone. 

A copy of the Bil>lc translated out of the original, presented by the Saratoga 
county Bible society. 

Burgoyne's Campaign anil St. Lcger's E,\pedition, by VVm. L. Stone. 



248 Centennial Celebrations. 

A cop3' of JIis. T^'illaid's history, and an American flag, presented by R. N. 
Atwell. 

Mrs. Ellen Hardin Walworth's Visitor's Guide: Saratoga, the Battle and Battle- 
grounds. 

Gen. Schuyler and the Burgoyne Campaign of 1777 — the annual address deliv- 
ered by Gen. John Watts De Peyster, before the New York Historical Society, 
.January, 1877. 

Saratoga County, an historical address by Geo. G. Scott, and a centennial 
address by J. L. L'Amoreaux. 

Saratoga and Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, a centennial address by N. B. Sylyesteb. 

The Burgoyne Campaign ; an address delivered on the battle-field on the one 
hundredth anniversary of the battle of Bemus Heights, September 19th, 1877, by 
John Austin Stevens. 

History of Saratoga and the Burgoyne Campaign of 1777; an address by Gen. 
Edward F. Bullard. 

An address to the American people in behalf of a monument, to be erected in 
commemoration of the victory of the American army at Saratoga, under Gens. 
Schuyler, Gates and Morgan, October 17th, 1777, by, J. C. Markham. 

Leading industrial pursuits of Glens Falls, Sandy Hill and Fort Edward, by 
J. S. Buckley. 

A silver half dollar coin of George HI, dated 1777, and one of the United 
States, dated 1877, deposited by Alanson Welch, president of the village. 

Memorial of the opening of the New York and Canada Railway, presented by 
Edward F. Bullard. 

Song, commemorative of the surrender of Burgoyne, arranged by Col. B. C. 
Butler, of Luzerne. 

Annual report of the canal commissioners of the State of New York. 

Records of Schuj'ler Lodge, No. 176, F. and A. M., and Home Chapter, No. 
176, R. A. M. 

A photograph of the monument from the architect's drawing. 

The cards of John and Samuel Matthews, and E. F. Simmons, the operative 
masons who built the foundation, base and corner-stone of the monument. 

The architects' statement of the progress of the work of building the founda- 
tion, base and corner-stone. D. A. Bullard in charge. 

Prospectus of the Bennington Battle Monument Association; volume on the 
Bennington centennial of the week of the 16th of August, 1877. 

A pamphlet containing a statement of the Bennington Historical Society, and 
an account of the battle of Bennington, by e.x-Gov. Hiland Hall, published in 
March, 1877. 

The Standard (daUy) of Schuylerville ; The Saratoga County Standard (weekly), 
Schuylerville ; copy of the Troy Daily Press, Troy; Daily Times, Troy; DaUy 
Whig, Troy ; Northern Budget, Troy ; Troy Observer, Sunday Trojan ; Daily 
Saratogian, Saratoga Sun ; Argus, Press, Express, Journal, Times, and Post, of 
Albany; Herald, Times, Tribune, Sun, World and Express, of New York city. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 249 



ADDKESS OF GRAND MASTER J. J. rOFCII. 

We are standing upon historic ground ; as citizens we join in commemorating 
the events of one hundred years ago. As masons we bring to the present under- 
talving the symbol and traditions of antiquity far more remote. The story of the 
campaign which gives special interest to the day will be recited by eloquent ora- 
tors who arc present with us. It is my office to say a word with reference to the 
masonic work tliis day performed. We hold to this truth, that the controlling 
and characteristic thoughts of a people crystallize and take permanent form in 
their architecture. That is alike true of the past and the present; we know not 
how long the material may have been in solution, or for how many generations 
the process of crystallization may have jjroceeded among the ancient Egyptians. 
That process is, however, clearly brought down to us in the pyramids, the obelisks, 
the sphinx; the square massive portals sm-mounted by winged globes, all speak- 
ing the predominant characteristic of mystery, which has come down to us from 
that people. In Greece the same process of crystallization is found with its 
nucleus at the Acropolis at Athens, and the result of that process comes down to 
us in the single word — classic art. Passing on to Italy, we find the same process 
again taking the form of empire. The story of the feudal ages is plainly written 
in the ruins of the castles along the banks of the Rhine. The early architecture 
of England also tells its own story. In sacred story we have an account of a pil- 
grimage, the thread of which commences with the mysteries of Egypt and run- 
ning through the Red sea and the wilderness, reaches to Jerusalem, where the 
pilgrims builded the temple. From here we have the story of another movement, 
commencing with the apostles, taking in its way something from the philosophy 
of Alexandria, something of the classic art of Greece, and gathering to itself 
also the power of the Roman empire. 

This movement received its characteristic architectural illustration in the swell- 
ing dome of St. Peter's, and in the magnificent Gothic architecture which spread 
over Europe. These various forms were the landmarks wliich permanently fixed 
the ideas of different peoples and ages. 

Crossing to tliis country the process of crystallization is still going on. Tlie 
interest of to-day centers upon the closing events of a campaign memorable in our 
nation's history. In laying the corner stone we essay to make i)ermancnt the rec- 
ord of these events. The thousands of people here assembled will separate never 
to meet again ; the orators of the occasion and their orations will after a time pass 
from the public mind. The one permanent fact which shall remain to recall the 
tradition associated with this spot will be the monument this day commenced.* 

The masonic exercises were then bronglit to an end by the benedic- 
tion. 

• The (ravel used bv the grand master on this occasion was made from wood of the historic 
charier oak. and is the property of Manhattan Lodge, No 63, of New York city 

33 



250 Cen'iennial Celebkations. 



AT THE SOUTH STAISTD. 

At this stand Hon. Ciias. S. Lestek presided, and after prayer by 
the Bev. Ktnrus "W. Clauk, of Albany, delivered an introductory 
address to the immense crowds attending at that stand. 

ADDEESS BY IIOK OHAS. S. LESTER 

Citizens of Sakatoga, and Fellow Citizens op our Great American 
Republic : 

It has been the custom among all nations which have attained to any degree of 
civilization to commemorate with appropriate ceremonies the returning anniversa- 
ries of those events in their histories which have been productive of great results. 
It has been the custom, too, upon such occasions, to pay a fitting tribute to those 
whose valor and wisdom have benefited the people and brought advantage to the 
State and to contemplate their achievements with gratitude and hold up theii- 
example to succeeding generations as worthy of imitation. 

In pursuance of such a custom and in grateful remembrance of the heroes who 
successfully resisted the army of the invaders upon the heights of Saratoga, we 
have come together to celebrate the centennial anniversary of that great c\'ent in 
om' history which made it possible for us to assemble here to-day as free citizens 
of a free republic. 

It was on the 13th of September, a hundred years ago, in full view of the place 
where we now stand, near where the beautiful Battenkill joins the majestic Hud- 
son, that a proud army, under the leadership of a brave general who had won 
distinction on many a European battle-field, crossed the river to carry out the man- 
date of a cruel and arbitrary king, and to crush, if possible, the infant colonies 
which were struggling for independence. 

This army, carefully equipped and furnished in abundance with all the muni- 
tions of war, was intended to split like a dividing wedge the patriots of Ver- 
mont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts from then- bretlireu in the central and 
southern colonies. It was intended to deprive them of mutual assistance and 
advice, and cut off all communication with each other. It was intended to effect 
a junction -ndth the forces of Sir Henry Clinton at Albany, and form an army 
wliich might move with irresistible effect upon the New England provinces which 
had offered the first opposition to the British crown and luid evinced a stern 
determination to maintain to the bitter end the bold and noble principles enuncia- 
ted in the Declaration of Independence. 

This army, full of confidence in its ability to overcome every obstacle, full of 
contempt for the undisciplined militia that the colonies had sent to the field, felt, 
as it crossed the Hudson, that the imitortant .nission with which it had been 
intrusted was well nigh accomi)lished, and vainly deemed its own prowess irre- 
sistible. 

"Ah," said the proud Burgoyne, "Britons never retreat," and after the pass- 
age of the army he caused the bridge of boats to be broken up behind him. 
" Britons never retreat, and I shall eat my Christmas dinner in Albany," said the 



ScnUYLERVir.LE. 251 

exultant gencial, as liu reviewed the splcnJid columns of tlie Brunswick grena- 
diers and British lijfht iiifantr}-. And as ho marched on he dreamed that Albany 
was already a captured city; that the rebellious provinces had been subdued, and 
that he had received from a grateful sovereign the reward he so much coveted. 

But this splendid army, led by officers of conspicuous coui-age and experience, 
W!is destined to meet a foe inspired by a feelisg loftier than the mere love of vic- 
tory, and a determination deeper than the mere desire for renown. 

It was in defense of their homes, in defense of their liberties, in defense of 
their families from the savage allies of Burgoyne and the still more cruel arts of 
domestic traitors, in defense of those noble princiijles of human rights and 
human liberty that animated the signers of that immortal declaration not then 
two years old, that the Americans from every settlement, from every hillside, from 
every valley, from the log hut of the jjioneer and from beautifid mansions like 
Schuyler's, flocked to the standard of Gates to aid in repelling the invader. 

It is not my province to detail to you those events which have become doubly 
familiar to you all in this centennial year. 

You know what happened at Bemus Heights, and of those victories the 
glorious fruits were gathered and this spot consecrated to freedom and rendered 
immortal by the complete suiTender of the invading army a hundred years ago 
to-day. 

Our elevated social and political condition is the manifest result of that con- 
quest, and I do not think it is mere national pride that induces us to claim that 
among the many momentous contests of the world's history none were productive 
of grander results or greater changes in nations and empires than the campaign 
that closed here a hundred years ago. England and France were powerful 
nations then, and had been hundreds of years. Their histories stretch back 
through centuries of growth, of progress, of varjdng prosperity and power, and 
of all the powerful nations that existed a century ago, they alone have maintained 
their leading position. 

The deep importance of that event of which this is the anniversary will more 
plainly appear when we remember that the struggling infant which was on that 
day baptized down by the banks of this our national Jordan, is to-day the 
acknowledged equal in arts, in power and civilization of those ancient empires. 

My friends, fifty years ago to-day a smaller company than that assembled here 
was gathered down on the plain by the river, where the ruins of Fort Hardy 
were then plainly discernible, and where the army of Burgoyne laid down their 
arms, to celebrate as we are celebrating here to-day the same glorious event. 
And among the company which was gathered then, there were white-haired men 
who had fought under General Gates — men who had, from the heights beyond 
the river, watched the moving oolumns of Burgoyne — who had seen Morgan at 
the head of his riflemen, and Lincoln at the head of his brigade — who had 
known and loved the noble Schuyler, who once owned the broad fields where you 
now stand — who had lain in the intrenchments which ran along where yonder 
corner stone has been laid ; and men who had modestly stood in line while the 
captured British ai-my marched' by after the surrender. 

They were gathered to rejoice in the success of the struggle in which they bore 
a part ; to rejoice in the splendid sunshine of nation.al prosperity, which had fol- 
lowed the termination of that struggle, and to receive the gr.ateful thanks of the 
generation which had si)rung up to enjoy the fruits of their labors. 

Fifty years have gone since then and all of that little band have passed away. 



252 Centennial Celebrations. 

Not a soldier is left -who stood in the ranks on those memorable days, not a living 
witness remains of those interesting scenes. 

Time rolls his ceaseless course. The race of yore 

"Who danced our infancy upon their knee 
And told our marvelling boyhood legends store 

Of their strange ventures happ'd on land and sea, 
Ilow are they blotted from the things that he ! 

So completely has that generation passed away that I believe there is here 
to-day but one man who can remember to have seen and conversed with Philip 
Schuyler. He is with us as a connecting link between the present and the past. 

The services of to-day give promise that soon a monument, too long delayed, 
shall rise from j'onder foundation, bearing suitable inscriptions to the worth and 
valor of those heroes. 

But of those men there remains an unwritten memorial in the heart of every 
true American. Theirs is the renown that never grows old, but shall be everlast- 
ingly recorded with each returning anniversary of this glorious day. 

It will be our privilege to-day to listen to the fascinating story of the events to 
which I have barely alluded, from the lips of eloquent gentlemen who are here to 
address you. 

From the enjoj'ment of their eloquence I will no longer detain you, but join 
with you in listening with never flagging interest to the recital of those stirring 
events 



ADDEESS OF PTON. HOEATIO SEYMODH. 

One hundred years ago, on this spot, American Independence was made a great 
fact in the history of nations. Until the surrender of the British army under Bur- 
goyne, the declaration of Indej^endence was but a declaration. It was a patriotic 
purpose asserted in bold words by brave men, who jjledged for its maintenance 
their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. But on this ground it was made 
a fact, by virtue of armed force. It had been regarded by the world merely as an 
act of defiance, but it was now seen that it contained the germs of a government, 
which the event we now celebrate made one of the powers of the earth. Here re- 
bellion was made revolution. Upon this ground, that which had in the eye of the 
law been treason, became triumphant patriotism. 

At the break of day one hundred years ago, in the judgment of the world, our 
fathers were rebels against established authority. When the echoes of the evening 
gun died away along this valley, they were patriots who had rescued their country 
from wrong and outrage. Until the surrender of the British army in this 
valley, no nation would recognize the agents of the Continental Congress. All 
intercourse with them was in stealthy ways. But they were met with open con- 
gratulations when the monarchs of Europe learned that the royal standards of Brit- 
ain had been lowered to our flag. We had passed through the baptism of blood, 
and had gained a name among the nations of the earth. The value of this surren- 
der was increased by the boastful and dramatic display which had been made of 
British power. It had arrayed its disciplined armies, it had sent its fleets; it had 
called forth its savage allies, all of which were to move upon grand converging- 
lines, not only to crush out the patriotic forces, but to impress Europe with its 
strength, and to check any alliances with the American Government. It made 



ScHrYLKKvrr.LK 253 

them witnesses of its defeat wliin it tlinught to make them the judges of its triumph. 
The monarchs of Europe, who watclied the progress of the doubtful struggle, wlio 
were uncertain if it was more than a popular disturbance, now saw the action in its 
full proportions, and felt that a new power had sprung into existence — a new 
clement had entered into the diplomacy of the world. 

The interests excited in our minds by this occasion are not limited to a battle 
fought, or an army captured; they reach even beyond the fact tliat it was the 
turning point of the revolutionary struggle. We are led to a consideration of a 
chain of events and of enduring aspects of nature, which have shaped our civiliza- 
tion in the past, and which now and throughout the future will influence the 
fortunes of our country. Burgoyne did not merely surrender here an army, he 
surrendered the control of a continent. Never in the world's history was there a 
transfer of territory so vast, and of influence so far reaching, as that made a cen- 
tury ago where we now stand. 

We meet to-day to celebrate the surrender of Burgoyne, by appropriate cere- 
monies, and to lay the corner stone of a monument which will commemorate not 
only that event, but every fact which led to that result. The reproach rests upon 
the United States, that while they stand in the front ranks of the powers of the 
earth, by virtue of their numbers, their vast domains and their progress in wealth 
and in arts, they give no proof to the eyes of the world that they honor their 
fathers or those whose sacrifices laid the foundations of their prosperity and great- 
ness. We hope that a suitable structure here Avill tell all who look upon it that 
this was the scene of an occurrence unsurpassed in imjiortance and far-reaching 
consequences in military annals. And it will also show that a hundred years have 
not dimmed its lustre in our eyes, but that the light shed upon its significance by 
the lapse of time, has made deeper and stronger our gratitude to those wlio here 
served their country so well, and by their sacrifices and sufferings achieved its in- 
dependence and secured the liberties, the prosperitj- and greatness of the 
American people. 

AU that throws light upon the scope and policy of the designs of the British 
Government are on this day proper topics for consideration. When we trace out 
the relationships which these designs bore to preceding occurrences ; and when 
we follow down their bearing upon the present and future of our country we shall 
see that a suitable moniunent here will recall to all thoughtful minds the varied 
history of our country during the past two centuries. It will do more. For the 
enduring causes which have shaped the past, also throw light upon the future of 
our government, our civilization and our power. 

The occurrences which led to the surrender of the British army have been 
appropriately celebrated. The great gatherings of our jieople at Oriskany, at 
Beimington, at Bcmus Heights, show how this centennial of what has been well 
termed the year of battles, revives in the minds of the American people an inter- 
est in the history of the revolution. The celebrations have tended to make oiu- 
peoi)le wiser and better. It is to be hoped that they will be held on every battle- 
field in our country. They will not only restore the patriotism of our people, but 
they will teach us the virtues of courage and patient endurance. This is a time 
of financial distress and of business disorder, and we have lost somewhat of our faith 
with regard to the future, and we speak in complaining tones of the evils of our 
day. But when we read again the history of the war of our independence; when 
we hear the story of the sufferings of all classes of our citizens ; when we are 
reminded that o>ir soldiers siiffered from want, and nakedness, and hunger, as no 



254 Centennial Celebrations. 

pauper, no criminal suffers now ; when we think that the fears which agitated 
tlieir minds were not those which merely concerned the pride of success, the 
mortification of failure, or the loss of some accustomed comfort, but they were 
the dread that the march of hostile armies might drive tlieir families from their 
homes, might apply the torch to their dwellings, or worse than this, expose their 
wives and children to the tomahawks and scalping knives of merciless savages, 
we blush at our complaints. In view of their dangers and sufferings, how light 
appear the evils of our day ! 

But there is something more than all this to be gained by these celebrations. 
Before the revolution the people of the several colonies held but little intercourse. 
They were estranged from each other by distance, by sectional prejudices, and by 
differences of lineage and religious creeds. The British Government relied upon 
these prejudices and estrangements to prevent a cordial co-operation among the 
colonists. But when the war began, when the men of Virginia hastened to Mass- 
achusetts to rescue Boston from the hands of the enemj' and to drive them from 
New England ; when the men of the East and South battled side by side 
with those from the Middle States and stood upon this spot as brothers to 
receive with a common pride and joy the standards of a conquered foe; when 
Green and Lincoln went to the relief of the Southern colonies, all prejudice 
not only died away, but more than fraternal love animated every patriot heart 
from the bleak northernmost forests of New England to the milder airs of Georgia. 
And now that a hundred years have passed, and our country has become great 
beyond the wildest dreams of our fathers, will not the story of their sufferings 
revive in the breasts of all the love of our country, of our whole country, and of 
aU who live within its boundaries? Men of the East and men of the South, or you 
who can trace your lineage back to those who served their country a century ago 
upon the soil of New York, we do not welcome you here as guests; you stand 
here of right, by vii-tue of a common heritage from our fathers, who on this ground 
were actors in the crowning event of the war waged for the liberties, the glory 
and the prosjaerity of all sections of our great country. At this celebration of 
the grand conclusions of the camjjaign of Burgoyne, we have a broader field of 
discussion than that of a battle fought and a victory won. The occasion calls not 
only for praise of heroic courage, not only for a deep interest in every statement 
sho-n-ing the influence of its victories over the judgment of the world as to the 
strength of our cause, but also for a consideration of its importance as one of the 
links in the chain of events reaching back more than two centuries, and which 
will continue to stretch down into the future far beyond the period when human 
thought or conclusions can be of value. 

Inflitence op the Topogkapht op orrn Countkt. 

The speaker and others who have addressed the public with regard to Ameri- 
can histor3'' have made frequent references to the extent that it has been shaped 
bj' the topography of this part of our country. On this occasion it forces itself 
upon our attention, and we must again outline its relationship to svents. We 
cannot, if we would, separate the design of the campaign of Burgoyne, nor the 
military aspects of its progress, from the character of the valleys through which 
its forces were moved, nor from the commanding positions at which it was aimed. 
Our mountains and rivers have been the causes of so many of the great facts in the 
history of this continent ; they are so closely identified with its political and social 



ScnUYLERVILLE. 255 

iiffairs, that they seem to become sentient actors in its events. We are compelled 
to speak of their bearings upon the course of war, of commerce and of civiliza- 
tion, to make a clear statement of tlie scope and significance of the events we 
celebrate. This cannot be given if we speak only of the British invasion of 1777 
and its signal defeat. 

Tliosc who would learn the causes which l\uve shaped the course of military 
and political affairs on this continent, which have given victory in war and pros- 
perity in peace, must spread out before them the map of our country. Having 
traced its grand system of mountains, rivers and lakes, they will be struck with 
tlie fact that for a thousand miles the Allcghanies make long ranges of barriers 
between the Atlantic and the great plains of the interior. About mid-way of 
their lengths these lofty mountains are cut down to their bases by the gorge of the 
Hudson, through which the tides of the ocean pour their floods in triumph. 
Towering cliffs overshadow tlie deep waters of the river. Had but a single spur 
of these rocky buttresses which crowd upon either shore been thrown across the 
narrow chasm, had but one of the beetling cliffs, which stand upon its brink been 
jnished but a few feet across its course, the ciurents of events would have been 
changed as completely as the currents of the floods. The nations who controlled 
the outlets of the Jlississippi and the St. Lawrence would have been the masters 
of this continent. No one who has marked the physical character of our country, 
and who has studied its history, can pass through the highlands of the Hudson 
and note how at every tiu'n of its stream the cliffs threaten to close its course, 
without feeling that the power which made the mountain chains to stop abruptlj' 
at its brink, was higher than blind chance — something more than the wild, 
unreasoning action of convulsed nature. Tlie valley of the Hudson does not end 
when it has led the ocean tides through the mountain passes. It stretches its 
channel northward to the St. Lawrence, and holds within its deep basin not only 
the Hudson flowing south, but Lake C'hamplain, which empties its waters into the 
ocean far north through the Oulf of St. Lawrence. It thus not only connected 
the harbor of New York with the basin of the great lakes, but by the Mohawk 
branch of the Hudson it has also channeled out another level passage, stretching 
westward to the plains wateied by the confluents of the Mississippi. These val- 
leys of the Hudson and ^lohawk have been the pathway of armies in war and the 
routes of commerce in peace. They have been the highways through which the 
nations of Europe and the people of the Atlantic coast have poured their hosts 
of emigrants into the vast regions which stretch out from the Alleghanies to the 
base of the Rocky Mountains. But nature did not stop in her work when she 
gave to the regions in which we meet the advantages of deep valleys, making 
easy comminiication from (lie sea-coast to the interior of our country. From the 
outward slopes of higlilands which guard these channels of intercourse, the 
waters flow by diverging valleys into almost every part of our Union. These 
highlands make in many ways the most remarkable watersheds to be found on 
the face of the earth. Tliere is not elsewhere an instance where interlocking 
sources of rivers pursue courses diverging in so many directions, forming so many 
extending valleys, and at length tind llieir outlets into the ocean at points so 
distant from each other, and from the head waters on the ground where they had 
their common origin. For tliese reasons the valleys of the Hudson and the 
Mohawk, and the momitain strongholds which command them, have ever been 
the great central points of control in tlie wars of both civilized and savage races. 
Once, when in company with Gen. Scott, we overlooked from an elevated point 



256 Centennial Celebrations. 

the ground on which we stand and the confluence of these rivers, and the range 
of highlands wliicli marked their courses. The old warrior with a kindling eye, 
stretched out his arm and said: " Remember, this has been the strategic point in 
all the wars waged for the control of this continent." 

The mountains and valleys of New York not only make channels for commerce 
in peace, but a grand system for defense and attack in war. They are nature's 
commanding works, which dwarf by comparison all human monuments of engi- 
neering skill into insignificance. Their influence is most clearly shown by the 
power they gave to the Indian tribes who held them when Europeans first visited 
our continent. The rivers which flowed in all directions from their vantage 
ground on the highlands, first taught the Iroquois the advantage of united action 
and led to the formation of their confederacy. Pouring their combined forces at 
different times into the valley of the Delaware, or of the Susquehanna, they were 
able to subdue in detail the divided tribes living upon these streams. Gaining 
courage and skill by constant victories, they boldly pushed their conquests into 
remote sections of our country. The British ordnance maps published during 
the colonial period make the boundaries of their control extend from the coast 
line of the Atlantic and from the great lakes to the center of the jji-esent State of 
North Carolina. There is no instance in history where a region so vast has been 
conquered by numbers so small. Their alliance with the Britisli Government was 
one of the grounds on which the latter contested the claims of France to the 
interior of our continent by virtue of its discoveries on the St. Lawrence and 
Mississippi. 

Thus the victories gained by the Iroquois, through their geographical position, 
had a great influence in deciding the question, whether tlie civilization of North 
America should be French or English in its aspects, laws and customs. It is a 
remarkable fact, that with a view of overcoming the British power on this conti- 
nent, nearly a century before the campaign of Burgoyne, its plan was forecast by 
Frontenac the ablest of the Frencli colonial commanders. He proposed to move 
against the colony of New York by the same routes followed by the Britisli forces 
in 1777. He was to lead his army through the valley of Lake Champlain and 
Upper Hudson to Albany. At that point lie designed to seize vessels to pass 
down the river, and there to act with the French ships of war, which were to 
meet him in the harbor of New York. Nothing can show more clearly the stra- 
getic importance of the valley in which we meet than the fact that he urged this 
movement for the same reason which led the British King to adopt it after the 
lapse of so many years. Frontenac saw that by gaining the control of the course 
and outlet of the Hudson, the French would command the^gateway into the inte- 
rior, that they would divide the British colonies, and New England thus cut off, 
would in the end fall into the hands of the French. He also urged that in this 
way the Iroquois would be detached from the British alliance. 

The influence of the valleys of our country has not been lost in the wars of our 
day. " We should have won our cause," said Governor Wise, a distinguished 
leader of the Southern Confederacy, " had not God made the rivers which sjiring 
from the highlands of New York, to flow from the North to the South, thus mak- 
ing, by their valleys, pathways for armies into all parts of our territories. Had 
their courses been in other directions, their streams would have made barriers 
against northern armies instead of giving avenues b}' which they could assail us." 
Nor have they been less controlling in peace than in war. They make the great 
channels of commerce between the East and the "West, and enable us to draw to 



SCIIU YLERVILLE. 257 

the seaboard the abundant harvests of the valley of tlie Mississippi, and to send 
them to the far-off markets of Europe. Numerous and varied as have been the 
movements of armies along these water-courses, even they sink into insignificance 
compared with the vast multitudes which poured through them from Europe and 
the Atlantic coast to fill the West with civilized States. Through them we draw 
armies of immigrants — prisoners of peace captured from Europe by the strength 
of the inducements held out to them by the material advantages of our country- 

We are in our day the witnesses of a greater movement of the human race, both 
as to numbers and influence upon civilization, than is recorded in past history. 
It can tell of no such continued and great transfer of population from one conti- 
nent to another. Unlike other invasions, it does not bring war and rapine, but it 
bears peaceful arts and civilization into vast regions heretofore occupied only by 
scanty tribes of warring savages. Familiar with this great movement, we are 
prone to look upon it with some degree of indiiierence. But through the cen- 
turies to come it will be regarded as one of the greatest events in the history of 
mankind. 

I have not dwelt upon these hills and valleys merely because they have been the 
scenes of the most dramatic and important events in American annals, but because 
they have given birth to these events. I have spoken of them, not because they 
have been associated with history, but because they have made history. They 
gave to the Iroquois their power ; they directed the course and determined the 
result of the war between France and Britain for domination on this continent. 
Neither the surrender of the British army on these grounds, the causes which pro- 
ceded, nor the consequences which flowed from it, can be appreciated until the 
enduring influences of the great features of our country are clearly brought into 
view. Elsewliere rivers and mountains mark the lines which make enemies 
of mankind. Here they form the avenues which bind us together by inter- 
course. They give not merely to a country, but to neai-ly our whole continent, 
a common language, customs and civilization. The world has never before seen 
a social structure with foundations so broad. Time may make many changes, 
but there will ever be a unity in the population of North America, a community 
of interests upon a grander scale than has yet been seen among mankind. He 
wlio studies the map of our continent and doubts this does not merely lack polit- 
ical faith, but is guilty of impiety when he closes his eyes to the truths which 
God has written, by streams and valleys, upon the face of this continent. 

It was the design of the British government in the campaign of 1777 to capture 
the center and stronghold of this commanding system of mountains and valleys. 
It aimed at its vei7 heart — the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson. The 
fleets, the armies, and the savage allies of Britain were to follow their converging 
lines to Albany. Its jjositiou had made that city the place where the Governors 
and agents of the colonies had been used to meet with reference to their common 
interest. Here the agents of the New England and Southern provinces came to 
consult with the chiefs of the Iroquois, and to gain their alliance in their wars 
with the savages of the AVest; who threatened the European settlements. In the 
expressive language of the Indians, Albany was called the "Ancient Place of 
Treaty." It was also the point at which the military expeditions against the 
French at the north and west were organized. Even before Benjamin Franklin 
brought forward his plan at Albany for colonial union, the idea of such alliance 
was constantly suggested by the necessity for common action in attack or defense 
against savage or civilized enemies. There was much to justify the boastful con- 
33 



258 Centennial Celebrations. 

fidence of the British that they could crush out American resistance. To feel 
tlie full force of this threatened blow we must forget for a time our present power, 
we must see with the eyes of our fathers and look at things as they stood a cen- 
tury ago. The care with which the army of Burgoyne was organized, its officers 
and men selected, and its material for an advance and attack provided, has been 
made familiar to om' people by this year's addresses. 

The progress of the British navy up the Hudson to a point west of the Alle- 
•ghany range, its seizure in its course of Stony Point and Fort Clinton, its success 
in forcing a passage through the highlands at West Point, the capture and burn- 
ing of Kingston, where the British Admiral awaited communication from Bur- 
goyne, have all been clearly narrated on the pages of history. Had tlie com- 
mander of the expedition gone to Albany he miglit have saved the army of Bur- 
goyne. General Gates saw if this had been done he would have been forced to 
retreat to New England. But it was not known at tlie time how great a peril was 
averted by an act of negligence in the British War Department. It appeared that 
orders were prepared, but not sent to General Howe, directing liim to co-operate 
with Burgoyue with all his forces. If this had been done, there is reason to fear 
the result would have been fatal to our cause. This is one of those strange occur- 
rences recognized in the lives of individuals as well as in the affairs of nations, 
which shows there is an overruling Providence that watches over both. (Note A.) 

The importance of the movement from the west by St. Leger and Ms Indian 
allies is not generally understood by our people. It was made witli confidence of 
success; and wlien its commander wrote to Burgoyne that he would be able to 
sweep down the valley of the Mohawk and place himself in the rear of the Amer- 
ican army, there was much to justify his confidence. The address of Mr. Roberts 
and others at the Oriskany celebration, are valuable contributions to the history 
of St. Leger's invasion. 

The Palatines who inliabited the valley of the Mohawk were, by their position, 
language and usages, severed from the body of the American colonies. The wise 
policy of Sir William Johnson had done much to attach them to the British crown. 
To enable them to worship God in accordance with their own creed and in the 
faith of that part of Germany from which they came, aid was given to them for 
the erection of churches. Many of these were strong stone structures, which 
were afterward fortified and used as places of refuge and defense dm-ing the Rev- 
olution, by the families of the settlers, against the ruthless warfare of savages. 
Most of these churches still stand, monuments of the past, and are now used for 
the sacred purposes for which they were built. The heirs and representatives of 
Sir William were with the army of St. Leger, and assured him that the dwellers 
upon the Mohawk would respond to theii- appeals, and rise in arms to uphold the 
cause of the crown. No stronger proof can be given that the love of liberty and 
of Democratic principles was engendered and born upon our soil, and not imported 
in some latent form in the ships which brouglit over the first colonists, than the 
fact that these settlers from the Palatinates of Germany, who had not known of 
Republican usages in their native land, and who could not, from their position and 
their language, receive impressions from the other colonists, had yet, amidst the 
trials and perils of border life and warfare, gained the same political convictions 
which animated the colonists in all parts of our country. It was the most remark- 
able fact of the Revolutionary war, and of the formation of State and General 
Governments, that, although the colonists were of different lineages ard lan- 
guages, living under different climates, with varied pursuits and forms of labor. 



ScnuTLERvn:,LE. 259 

cut off from intercourse by distances, yet, in spite of all these obstacles to accord, 
they were from the outset animated by common views, feelings and purposes. 
When their independence was gained, tliey were able, after a few weeks spent in 
consultation, to form the Constitution under which we have lived for nearly one 
hundred years. 

There can be no stronger proof of the fact that American constitutions were born 
and sliapcd by American necessities. This fact should give us new faitli in tlie 
lasting nature of our government. In the case of the Palatines of the Mohawk, 
this truth shines out more clearly than elsewhere. Isolated by language, lineage 
and position, the great body of them fought for the American cause, and showed 
a sturdy valor from the outset. They endured more of suffering and danger in 
its most appalling form, than was felt elsewhere. The change of their language, 
and the inflow from other States and countries into central New York, many of 
the traditions and incidents of the valley of the Mohawk have been obscured. Its 
history should be developed and made familiar to our people. The most telling 
blow to the cause of the crown and to the hopes of St. Leger, was that the mus- 
tering of the men under Herkimer, theii- desperate valor in the fight at Oriskany, 
showed that he was to be met with undying hostility where he had looked for 
friends and allies. From that day the hope, which animated him when he prom- 
ised to aid Burgoyne, faded away. 

The defeat of St. Leger and their allies was given by Burgoyne as one of the 
great causes of his failure to reach Albany. 

Indi.\n Allies. 

The importance of the Indian alliance with the British during the Revolution 
has been under-valued by most of those who have written the histories of the 
Revolution. We look upon Indian wars as mere savage outbursts, which may 
cause much misery and suffering, but which threaten no danger to governments. 
We are apt to think that savages were merely used to divert and distract the 
American forces. But such was not its import then, in the judgment of the con- 
tending parties, or of the nations of Europe, who watched with interest the course 
of military events on this continent. We must bear in mind the estimation in 
which the Iroquois were held at the close of the French war. Their alliance 
had done much to give the victory to the English. At times, the hostility of 
these savage confederates would have been fatal to the British cause. Their posi- 
tion made them conquerors of their kindred races. Victories inspired them with 
heroism. E.xtcnded conquests had taught them much of the polity of government. 
In the councils of their confederacy, orators and statesmen had been formed. 
They extorted from their French enemies expressions of admiration and statements 
of virtues, which we should do well to imitate in our own day and in our own 
councils. Colden, who was familiar wth their polity, states that the authority of 
their nilers consisted wholly of the estimation in which they were held for integ- 
rity and wisdom, and that they were generally poorer than the rest of the people, 
lie adds, "there is not a man in the Five Nations who has gained his office other- 
wise than by merit." Their enemies, the French, testified in their histories, that 
while they were the fiercest and most formidable people in America, they were 
])olitie and judicious in the management of their affairs. For neai-ly a ceiftury tlie 
French and Englisli struggled to gain their alliance by every influence of religion, 
of diplomacy and display of power. Even as late as 1754, George Washington, 



260 Centennial Celebkations. 

then a colonial officer, called upon them for assistance in his movements against 
the French on the Ohio river, and claimed that he went forth to fight for their 
rights, because the French were occupying territories which belonged to the Iro- 
quois. Only twenty years before the Revolutionary war, the British Minister in- 
sisted in its correspondence with the French Government, that the Iroquois were 
the owners by conquest, of the Ohio territory, and that they were the subjects of 
the British Crown. This was the claim set up against the French rights of dis- 
covery. It is a remarkable fact, that the French did not deny the rights of con- 
quest by the Iroquois, but denied that they were the subjects of Britain in these 
strong words: " Certain it is that no Englishman durst, without running the risk 
of being massacred, tell the Iroquois that they are the subjects of England." One 
of the first acts of the Continental Congress was designed to secure the alliance of 
the Six Nations. In this they were unsuccessful, except as to the Oneidas. The 
co-operation of their savage allies was deemed of the utmost importance by the 
British. (ISTote B.) 

I do not speak of the action at Bennington nor of the battle of Bemus Heights.' 
The late celebrations upon the grounds upon which thej' took place have made 
the public familiar with all their aspects and results. 

Ikpltjence op Bukgotne's Surrender. 

France saw that upon the very theater of war, where Britain had ■uTcsted from 
it the control of this continent, its ancient enemy had been beaten by the new 
power which was springing into existence. To the French Government this vic- 
tory had a significance that no like victory could have had upon other fields. It 
knew better than others the commanding features of this region. Its missionaries 
were highly educated men, who marked with care the character of our moun- 
tains, lakes and streams. Impelled by religious zeal and devotion to the interests 
of their native land, they boldly pushed into the remote portions of the continent 
in advance of commercial enterprise or military expeditions. Their narratives 
are to this day of great value and interest. The surrender of Burgoyne had also 
a marked effect upon the tone and policy of the British Cabinet ; it no longer 
fought for conquest but for compromise. Its armies were moved with a view of 
saving a part if it could not hold all of its jurisdiction. It was able to take pos- 
session of the principal cities, but it could not find elsewhere positions, like that 
aimed at by Burgoyne, which would enable it to sunder and paralyze the patriot 
forces. It exhausted its armies in campaigns which produced no results, even 
when successful in repulsing our forces or in occupying the points at which they 
were directed. Its commanders were animated by only one gleam of hope. The 
proud, power, which at the outset called upon the world to witness its strength in 
crushing rebellion, stooped to dealings with a traitor, and sought to gain by cor- 
ruption what it could not gain by force. The treason of Arnold excited the 
deepest feelings, because the loss of "West Point, the key of the Hudson, would 
have given the British a position from which they could not have been dislodged, 
at the center of the strongholds for defense and for attack. The fact that the 
loss of West Point would have been deemed a fatal blow to the American cause 
places the strategic importance of this region in the strongest light. 

The snrrender of Burgoyne not only gave new hope to the patriots, but it 
exerted a moral influence upon our soldiers. The colonists up to that time had been 
trained in the belief that British soldiers were irresistible. To hold them superior 



SciIUYLERVUiLE. 261 

to all others in arms hail been American patriotism. Through the century of the 
French wars precedence had always been yielded to the officers of the Crown ; 
and tlie colonists looked mainly to the British army to protect their homes from 
invasion. Colonial papers showed an extravagance of loyalty which is frequently 
exhibited in the outlying and exposed settlements of all nations. The Revolu- 
tion, while it made a revulsion of feeling, did not at the outset destroy this sense 
of the superior skill and power of British arms. The early engagements in the 
open held had not been fortunate for the patriot cause. Tlie armies of the 
Cro\vn were still buoyed up by that sense of superiority whicli, in itself, is an ele- 
ment in martial success. Burgoyne did not doubt his ability to destroy any army 
he could reach. The battle of Bemus Heights was a fair and open contest on 
equal terms. In strategy, in steadiness, in valor, the Continental troops proved 
themselves in all ways equal to the picked and trained men against whom they 
fought. From the day that victory was won, the American soldier felt himself 
to be the equal of all who could be brought against him, and he knew that he 
was animated by higher and nobler purposes than those which moved the ranks 
of his enemies. The whole spirit of the contest was changed. Our armies 
reaped a double triumph on this field. There was much in the contempt which 
had been shown by their enemies of their qualities as soldiers, much in the taunts 
and sneers of the British Cabinet, much in the pillage and destruction which ever 
attend the march of the invading armies, to excite our fathers to exhibitions of 
exultation over fallen foes. But they bore themselves, not as men intoxicated 
by siiccessful fortunes in war, but as men who felt it was in them to win victories 
there or elsewhere. There was a calmness in the hour of triumph, which more 
even than courage upon the battle-tield impressed the defeated armies with the 
character of those of whom they had spoken so contemptuously. The enemy 
were twice conquered, and in many ways the last victory over them was most 
keenly felt. The moral and military advantages of the surrender of the British 
army was marred by no act which lessened the dignity of the conquerors. And 
he who reads the story of the contest, finds himself most triumphant in his feel- 
ings over the moral rather than the martial victory. 

General Schuyler. 

.When we read the story of the event which we now celebrate, whether it is told 
by friend or foe, there is one figure which rises above all others upon whose con- 
duct and bearing we love to dwell. There is one who won a triumph which never 
grows dim. One who gave an example of patient patriotism unsurpassed in the 
pages of history. One who did not, even under cutting wrongs and cruel sus- 
picions, wear an air of martyrdom, but with cheerful alacrity served where he 
should have commanded. It was in a glorious spirit of chivalrous courtesy with 
which Schuyler met and ministered to those who had not only been enemies in 
arms, but who had inflicted u])on him unusual injuries unwarranted bj' the laws of 
war. But there was something more grand in his service to his country than 
even the honor he did to the American cause by his bearing upon this occasion. 
The spirit of sectional prejudice, which the British Cabinet relied upon to prevent 
cordial co-operation among the colonies, had been exhibited against him in a way 
most galling to a pure patriot and a brave soldier. But, filled with devotion to 
his country's cau.se, he uttered no murmur of complaint, nor did he for a moment 
cease in his labors to gain its liberties. This grand rebuke to selfish intriguers 



262 Centennial Celebkations. 

and to honest prejudices did much to discomfit the one and to teacli tlie otlicr 
the injustice of tlieir suspicions and the unworthiness of sectional prejudices. 
The strength of this rebuke sometimes irritates -ivriters who cannot rise above 
local prejudices, and they try to lessen the public sense of his virtue by reviving 
the attack, proved to be unjust upon investigation, and -which, by the verdict of- 
men honored by their country, was proved to be unfounded. The character of 
Gen. Schuyler grows brighter in public regard. The injustice done him by his 
removal from his command, at a time when his zeal and ability had placed victory 
witliin his reach, is not perhaps to be regretted. We could not well lose from our 
history his example of patriotism and of personal honor and chivalry. We could 
not spare the proof which his case furnishes, that virtue triumphs in the end. 
We would not change if we coiild, the history of his trials. For we feel that in 
the end they gave lustre to his character, and we are forced to say of Gen. 
Schuyler that, while he had been greatly wronged, he had never been injui-ed. 

Saeatoga Monument. 

The Association formed under the laws of this State, to erect a suitable monu- 
ment to commemorate the defeat of the British army under Burgoyne, has 
selected this spot upon which to place it, because here it will recall to the mind not 
only the final act, but every event which led to the surrender. It will carry the 
thoughts of him who looks upon it back to the first and fierce fight at Oriskany. 
It will remind him of the disaster to the British forces at the battle of Bennington. 
It will excite the deepest interest in the contest on the hills at Bemus Heights. 
It will do more. It wDl bring before the public mind that grand procession of 
events, which for two centuries have passed through the valleys of the Hudson 
and the Mohawk. When it shall excite the interests which attach to the occasion 
which we celebrate, linked history will lead the public mind back, step by step, 
to the earliest period of the French and English settlements on this continent. 
We shall be taught what made the savage tribes of this region superior in war and 
polity to their kindred races. We shall be reminded of the forays of savages, 
the march of disciplined armies, the procession of Christian missionaries, which 
exceed in dramatic interest and in far-reaching consequences all other incidents 
of war, of diplomacy, and of religious zeal exhibited on 'this continent. The 
events which have occurred in these valleys have also been closely connected with 
those most important in European history. The ambition of Louis the Fourteenth 
of France aimed at supremacy on two continents. The prolonged war over the 
balance of power in Europe concerned the civilization of America. The genius 
of Marlborough and the victorj' of Blenheim were of more enduring consequence 
to us than to the parties engaged in the contest. They did not foresee that they 
were shaping the civilization of a continent, the destinies of a people at this day 
exceeding in numbers the united populations of the cduntries engaged in the war. 
Where else in our country can a monument be placed, from which will radiate so 
much that is instructive ? Where else can a structm-e be erected which will teach 
such a varied history ? Elsewhere, great achievements in peace or war make 
certain spots instinct ■with interest. Elsewhere, the great features of nature have 
influenced the fate of nations. But it Is not true that elsewhere mountains and 
rivers have been such marked and conspicuous agents in shaping events. Here 
they have directed the aflfairs of this continent as if they were sentient things. In 
selecting a place where a monument should stand, this Association has not been 



SCHUYLEUVILLK. 263 

embarrassed l)y any questions as to the comparative importance of the act of sur- 
render of the British army, or of the battles which made that surrender inevitable. 
Eacli lins its pecuHar interest, and each should be marked by suitable monuments. 
But the last scene in the drama unfolds to the mind the plot and incidents which 
reach their conclusion at the close. A monument on this ground not only com- 
memorates what occurred here, but it recalls to the mind all the incidents and 
battles whicli preceded it, and gives to each a deeper interest than when they are 
considered separately. Each is viewed not only in the light of the wisdom, valor 
or patriotism disjjlayed, but of its bearing upon the grand result. lie who visits 
the scene of the bloody fight at Oriskany, or looks over the hills where the men 
of Vermont drove back the troops of Burgoyne, or studies the movements of the 
armies at the battle of Bemus Heights, does not rest until he dwells upon the 
grand conclusion reached upon this spot. When his mind is kindled with patri- 
otic pride upon either of the battle-fields to wliich I have alluded, he will turn his 
thoughts to the ground upon which we now meet, and thank God for the event 
we now celebrate. The surrender of Burgoyne marks the dividing line between 
two conditions of our country : the one the colonial period of dependence, and 
the other the day from which it stood full armed and victorious here, endowed 
with a boldness to a.ssert its independence, and endowed with a wisdom to frame 
its own government. From this review of the past we instinctively turn our 
minds and try to scan the years that are to come. It is not given to us to forecast 
the future. But when we study the great natural features of our country, and 
see how they have directed the past, we learn from the silver links of the rivers 
and the rocky chains of mountains that God has written and stamped on the face 
of this continent, that it shall ever be held by those speaking a common language, 
with a common civilization, and living together with that freedom of intercourse 
which shall forever, under some forms, make them one people. 

A monument upon this spot will not merely minister to local pride ; it will not 
foster sectional prejudices ; every citizen of every State of this Union will feel as 
he looks upon it that he has a right to stand upon this ground. It will tell of the 
common sacritices and common trials of the fathers of the Republic. Men from 
all parts of our Union will here be reminded that our independence as a people 
was wrought out by the sufferings and sacrifices of those who came from every 
quarter of our country to share in this valley in the perils of battle and in the tri- 
umphs of victory. Here sectional passions will fade away ; and the glorious mem- 
ories and the fraternal feelings of the past will be revived. 

We are told that during more than twenty centuries of war and bloodshed, only 
fifteen battles have been decisive of lasting results. The contest of Saratoga is 
one of these. From the Battle of Marathon to the field of Waterloo, a period of 
more than two thousand years, there was no martial event which had a greater 
influence upon human affairs than that which took place on these grounds. Shall 
not some suitable structure recall this fact to the public mind ? Monuments make 
as well as mark the civilization of a people. Neither France, nor Britain, nor 
Germany, could spare the statues or works of art which keep alive in the minds 
of their citizens the memories of patriotic sacrifices or of personal virtues. Such 
silent teachers of all that ennobles men, have taught their lessons through the 
darkest ages, and have done much to save society from sinking into utter decay 
and degradation. If Greece or Rome had left no memorials of private virtues or 
public greatness, the progress of civilization would have lost a powerful stimulus. 
If their crumbling remains should be swept away, the world would mourn the loss, 



264 Centennial Celebkations. 

not only to learning and arts, but to ^'il■tue and patriotism. It concerns the honor 
and welfare of the American jieople, that this spot should be marked by some 
structure which shall recall its history, arid animate all who look upon it by its 
grand teachings. No people ever held lasting power or greatness, who did not 
reverence the virtues of their fathers, or who did not show forth this reverence 
by material and striking testimonials. Let us, then, build here a lasting monu- 
ment, which shall tell of our gratitude to those -who, through suffering and sacri- 
fice, wrought out the Independence of our country. 



ADDEESS BY GEOKGE WILLIAM CURTIS 

■ Within the territory of New York, broad, fertile and fair, from Montauk to 
Niagara, from the Adii-ondacks to the bay, there is no more memorable spot than 
that on which we stand. Elsewhere, indeed, the great outlines of the landscape 
are more imposing, and on this autumnal day the parting benediction of the year 
rests with the same glory on other hills and other waters of the imperial State. 
Far above, these gentle heights rise into towering mountains; far below, this 
placid stream broadens and deepens around the metropolis of the continent into 
a spacious highway for the commerce of the world. Other valleys with teeming 
intervale and fruitful upland, rich with romantic tradition and patriotic story, 
filled like this with happy homes and humming workshops, ■^^^nd through the 
vast commonwealth, ample channels of its various life; and town and city, village 
and hamlet, church and school, everywhere illustrate and promote the prosperous 
repose of a community great, intelligent and free. But this spot alone within our 
borders is consecrated as the scene of one of the decisive events that afEect the 
course of history. There are deeds on which the welfare of the world seems to 
be staked ; conflicts in which liberty is lost or won ; victories by which the stand- 
ard of human progress is full high advanced. Between sunrise and sunset, on 
some chance field the deed is done, but from that day it is a field enchanted. 
Imagination invests it with 

"The light that never was on sea or land." 

The grateful heart of mankind repeats its name; Heroism feeds upon its story; 
Patriotism kindles with its perennial fire. Such is the field on which we stand. 
It is not ours. It does not belong to New York ; nor to America. It is an inde- 
feasible estate of the world, like the field of Arbela, of Tours, of Hastings, of 
"Waterloo ; and the same lofty charm that draws the pilgrim to the plain of Mara- 
thon resistlessly leads him to the field of Saratoga. 

The drama of the Revolution opened in New England, culminated in New York, 
and closed in Virginia. It was a happy fortune that the three colonies which 
represented the various territorial sections of the settled continent were each in 
turn the chief seat of war. The common sacrifice, the common struggle, the 
common triimiph, tended to weld them locally, politically and morally together. 
Doubtless there were conflicts of provincial pride and jealousy and suspicion. 
The Virginia officers smiled loftily at the raw Yankee militia ; the Green Moun- 
tain boys distrusted the polisjied discipline of New York ; and the New York 
Schuyler thought those boys brave but dangerously independent. In every great 
crisis of the war, however, there was a common impulse and devotion, and the 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 265 

welfare of the continent obliterated provincial lines. It is by the few heaven- 
piercing peaks, not by the confused mass of upland, that we measure tlie height 
of the Andes, of the Alps, of the Himalaya. It is by Joseph Warren, not by Ben- 
jamin Church, by John Jay, not by Sir John Johnson, by George Washington, not 
by Benedict Arnold, that we test the quality of the revolutionary character. 
The voice of Patrick Henry from the mountains answered that of James Otis 
by the sea. Paul Kevere's lantern shone through the valley of the Ilud.son, and 
flashed along the clitis of the Blue Kidge. The scattering volley of Lexington 
green swelled to the triumphant thunder of Saratoga, and the reverberation of 
Burgoyne's falling arms in New York shook those of Cornwallis in Virginia from 
his hands. Doubts, jealousies, prejudices, were merged in one common devo- 
tion. The union of the colonies to secure liberty foretold the union of the states 
to maintain it, and wherever we stand on revolutionary fields, or inhale the sweet- 
ness of revolutionary memories, we tread the ground and breathe the air of iuviu- 
cible national union. 

Our especial interest and pride, to-day, are in the most important event of the 
Revolution upon the soil of New York. Concord and Lexington, Bunker Hill 
and Bennington, the Brandywinc and Germantown, have had their fitting cen- 
tennial commemorations, and already at Kingston and Oriskaily, New York has 
taken up the wondrous tale of her civil and military achievements. In proud 
continuation of her story we stand here. Sons of sires who bled with Sterling 
on the Long Island shore; who fought with Herkimer in the deadly Oneida 
defile; who defended the Higliland forts with George Clinton; who, with Robert 
Livingston and Gouverneur Morris, were driven from town to town by stress of 
war, yet framed a civU constitution, all untouched by the asperity of the conflict 
and a noble model for all free States ; sons of sires who, leaving the plough and 
the bench, gathered on this historic war-path — the key of the then civilized con- 
tinent; the western battle-ground of Europe; the trail by which Fronteuac's 
Indians prowled to Schenectady, and crept to the Connecticut and beyond; the 
way by which Sir William Johnson and his army passed in the old French war, 
and humbled Dieskau at Lake George ; the road along w-hich Abercrombie and 
his bright array marched to disaster in the summer morning, and Amherst mar- 
shalled his men to co-operate with Wolf in the humbling of Quebec ; sons of sires, 
who, mustering here on ground still trembling with the tread of armies, where 
the-air forever echoes with the savage war whoop, or murmurs with the pathetic 
music of the march and tlic camp — 

** Wliy, soldiers, why. 
Should we bo melancholy, boys? 
Whose business 'tis to die." 

even here withstood the deadly British blow and enveloping the haughty H\ir- 
goync, compelled not only him to yield his sword, but England to surrender an 
empire ; sons of such sires, who should not proudly recall such deeds of thcu'S and 
gratefully revere their memory, would be forever scorned as faithless depositaries 
of the great English and American tradition, and the great human benediction, of 
patient, orderly, self-restrained liberty. , 

When King George heard of the battle of Bunker Hill, he consoled himself 
with the thought that New York was still unswervingly loyal; and it was the 
hnpi- and the faith of his ministry that the rebellion might at last be baffled in 
that great colony. It wa.s a region of vast extent, but thinly peopled, for the 
po|)ulatiou was but little more than one hundred and sixty thousand. It had 
34 



266 Centennial CELEBiiAxiONS. 

been settled by men of various races, -n-ho, upon the sea shore, and through the 
remote vallej^s, and in the primeval wilderness, cherished the freedom that they 
brought and transmitted to their children. But the colony lacked that homo- 
geneity of population which produces general sj'mpathy of conviction and concert 
of action ; which gives a community one soul, one heart, one hand, interprets 
every man's thought to his neighbor, and explains so mucli of the great deeds of 
the Grecian commonwealths, of Switzerland, and of Old and New England. In 
New York, also, were the hereditary manors — vast domains of a few families, 
private principalities, with feudal relations and traditions — and the spirit of a 
splendid proprietary life was essentially hostile to doctrines of popular right and 
power. In the magnificent territory of the Mohawk and its tributaries, Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, amid his family and dependents, lived in baronial state among the 
Indians, with whom he was allied by marriage, and to whom he was the vicar of 
theu- royal father over the sea. The Johnsons were virtually supreme in the coun- 
try of the Mohawk, and as they were intensely loj'al, the region west of Albany 
became a dark and bloody ground of civil strife. In the city of New York, and 
in the neighboring counties of Westchester upon the river and sound, of Rich- 
mond upon the bay, and Queens and Suffolk on the sea, the fear that sprang from 
conscious exposure to the naval power of Great Britain, the timidity of commer- 
cial trade, the natural loyalty of numerous officers of the crown, all combined to 
foster antipathy to any disturbance of that establislied authority which secured 
order and peace. 

But deeper and stronger than all other causes was the tender reluctance of Eng- 
lishmen in America to believe that reconciliation lA-ith the mother country was 
impossible. Even after the great day on Bunker Hill, when, in full sight of his 
country and of all future America, Joseph Warren, the well-beloved disciple of 
American liberty, fell, congress, while justifying war, recoiled from declaring 
independence. Doubtless the voice of John Adams, of Massachusetts, counsel- 
ing immediate and entire separation, spoke trulj' for the unanimous and fervent 
jiatriotism of New England ; but doubtless, also, the voice of John Jay, of New 
York, who knew the mingled sentiment of the great province whose position in 
the struggle must be decisive, in advising one more appeal to the king, was a 
voice of patriotism as pure, and of courage as unquailing. 

The appeal was made, and made in vain. The year that opened with Corscord 
and Lexington ended with the gloomy tragedy of the Canada campaign. On the 
last day of the year, in a tempest of sleet and snOAv, the combined forces of New 
England and New York made a desperate, futile onset ; and the expedition from 
which Washington and the country had anticipated results so insjiiring was dashed 
in pieces against the walls of Quebec. The country mourned, but New York had 
a peculiar sorrow. Leaving his tranquil and beautiful home upon this river, one 
of her noblest soldiers — brave, honorable, gentle — the son-in-law of Livingston, 
the friend of Schuyler, after a brief career of glory, died the death of a hero. 
" You shall not blush for your Montgomery," he said to his bride as he left her. 
For fifty years a widow, his bride saw him no more. But while this stately river 
flows through the mountains to the sea, its waves will still proudly murmur the 
name, and recall the romantic and heroic story of Richard Montgomery. 

The year 1770 was not less gloomy for the American cause. Late in November 
Washington was hm-riedly retreating across New Jersey, jjursued by Oornwallis, 
his army crumbling with every step, the state paralyzed with terror, congress flying 
afErighted from Philadelphia to Baltimore, and the apparent sole remaining hope 



SCITUYLEKVILLK. 267 

of AmcTicaii independence, tlit- rigor of winter, snow, and impassable roads. All, 
no! It was not in winter but in summer that that hope lay, not in the relentless 
frost of tlie elements, but in the heavenly tire of hearts beating high witli patriotic 
resolve, and tui-ning the snow flakes of that terrible retreat into immortal roses of 
victory and joy. While Howe and his officers, in the warm luxury and wOd 
debauchery of the city they had captured, believed the war ended, gailysangand 
madly caroused, Washington, in the dreary Christmas evening, turned on the ice 
of the Delaware, and struck the Hessians fatally at Trenton; then in the cold 
January sunrise, defeating the British at Princetown, his anny filed with bleed- 
ing feet into the highlands of New Jersey, and half starved and scantily clothed, 
encara})ed upon the frozen hills of Morristowu. "The Americans have done 
much," said despairingly one of their truest friends in England, Edmund Burke, 
" but it is now evident that they cannot look standing armies in the face." That, 
however, was to be determined by the campaign of 1777. 

For that campaign England was already preparing. Seven years before. Gen- 
eral Carleton, who still commanded in Canada, had proposed to hold the water 
line between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the bay of New York, to prevent a 
separation of the colonies. It was now proposed to hold it to compel a separa- 
tion. The ocean mouths of the great waterway were both in complete possession 
of the crown. It was a historic warpath. Here had waged the prolonged con- 
flict between France and England for the control of the continent, and in fierce 
war ujion the waters of New York, no less than on the plains of Abraham, the 
power of France in America finally fell. Here, also, where it had humbled its 
proud rival, the strong hand of England grasping for unjust dominion was.to be 
triumphantly shaken off. This region was still a wilderness. Seventy years 
before, the first legal land title in it was granted. In 1745, thirty years before 
the Revolution, it was the extreme English outpost. In 1777, the settlers were 
few, and feared the bear and the catamount less than the tory and the Indian. 
They still built block houses for retreat and defense like the first New England 
settlers a hundred and fifty years before. Nowhere during the Revolution were 
the horrors of civil war so constant and so dire as here. The tories seized and 
harassed, shot and hung the whigs, stole theii- stock and store, burned their barns 
and ruined their crops, and the whigs remorselessly retaliated. The stealthy 
Indian struck, shrieked and vanished. The wolf and the wildcat lurked in the 
thicket. Man and beast were eipially cruel. Terror overhung the fated region, 
and as the great invasion approached, the universal flight and devastation recalled 
the grim desolation in Germany during the thirty years' war. 

Of that invasion, and of the campaign of 1777, the central figure is John B\ir- 
goyne. No name among the British generals of the Revolution is more familiar, 
yet he was neither a great soldier nor a great man. He was willing to bribe his 
old comrade in arms, Charles Lee, to betray the American cause, and he threat- 
ened to loose savages upon the jVmericans for defending it. Biu-goyne was an 
admirable type of the English fashionable gentleman of his day. The grandson 
of a baronet, a Westminster boy, and trained to arms, he eloped with a daugh- 
ter of the great whig house of Derby, left the army and lived gaily on the conti- 
nent. Restored to a military career by political influence, he served as a captain 
in France, and returning to England, was elected to parliament. He went a 
brigadier to Portugal, and led a brilliant charge at Valeiitia d' Alcantara, was 
com])limentcd by the great Count Lippe, and flattered by the British ])rime min- 
ister. For his gallantry the king of Si)ain gave him a diamond ring, and with 



268 Centennial Celebrations. 

that blazing on his finger he retui-ned once more to England, flushed with brief 
glory. There for some years he was a man of pleasiire. He wrote slight verses 
and little plays that are forgotten. Reynolds painted his portrait in London, as 
Ramsay had painted it in Rome. Horace Walpole sneered at him for his plays, 
but Lord Chatliam praised him for his military notes. Tall and handsome, grace- 
ful and winning in manner, allied to a noble house, a favorite at court and on 
parade, he was a gay companion at the table, the club and the theater. The king 
admired his dragoons, and conferred upon him profitable honors, which secured 
to liim a refined and luxurious life. In jjarliameut, when the American war began, 
Burgoyne took the high British ground, but with the urbanity of a soldier, and 
he gladly obeyed the summons to service in America, and sailed with Howe and 
Clinton on the great day that the British troops marched to Concord. He saw 
the battle of Bunker Hill, and praised the American courage and military abOity, 
but was very sure that trained troops would always overcome militia. The one 
American whom he extolled was Samuel Adams. He thought that he combined 
the ability of Csesar with the astuteness of Cromwell ; that he led Franklin and 
all the other leaders, and that if his counsels continued to control the continent, 
America must be subdued or relinquished. 

Burgoyne saw little actual ser\dce in this country until he arrived at Quebec on 
the 6th of May, 1777, as commander of the great enterprise of the year. The 
plan of campaign was large and simple. One expedition led by Burgoyne, was 
to force its way from Quebec to Albany, thi'ough the valley of the Hudson, and 
another, under St. Leger, was to push through the valley of the Mohawk, to the 
same point. At Albany, they were to join General Howe, who would advance up 
the river from the bay. By the success of these combined operations, the British 
would command New York, and New England would be absolutely cut off. This 
last result alone would be a signal triumph. New England was the nest of rebel- 
lion. There were the fields where British power was first defied in arms. There 
were the Green mountains fron^ which Ethan Allen and his boys had streamed 
upon Ticonderoga. There was Boston bay where the tea had been scattered, and 
Narragansett bay where the Gaspe had been burned, and the harbors of Machias 
and of Newport, from which the British ships had been chased to sea. There 
were Faneuil Hall and the town meeting. There was Boston, whose ports had 
been closed — Boston with the street of the massacre — Boston, of which King 
George had bitterly said that he would "as lief fight the Bostonians as the 
French. " There were the pulpits which preached what Samuel Adams called lib- 
erty, and Samuel Johnson sedition. The very air of New England was full of 
defiance. The woods rustled it, the waters murmured it, the stern heart of its 
rugged nature seemed to beat in unison with the stout heart of man, and all 
throbbed together with the invincible Anglo-Saxon instinct of liberty. To cut 
off New England from her sisters — to seize and hold the great New York valleys 
of Champlain and the Hudson — was to pierce the heart of the rebellion, and to 
paralyze America. Here then was to be the crucial struggle. Here in New York 
once more the contest for the western continent was to be decided. Burgoyne 
had airily said in Loudon, that with an army of ten thousand men he could prom- 
enade through America, and now the brilliant gentleman was to make good his 
boast. 

While he was crossing the ocean to begin his task, and when every possible 
effort should have been made by congress to meet the ample and splendid prepa- 
rations for the British invasion, wretched intrigues displaced General Schuyler in 



Schuyler viLLE. 2G9 

the nortiicrn department, and it was not until late in ilay that he was restored to 
the command. The peril was at hand, but it was impossible to collect men. By 
the end of June, the entire garrison of Ticondcroga and Fort Independence, the 
first great barrier against the advance of Burgoyne, con-sisted of twenty-five hun- 
dred continentals and nine hundred militia, barefooted and ragged, without proper 
arms or sufficient blankets, and lacking every adequate preparation for defense. 
But more threatening than all, was Sugar-loaf hill, rising above Ticonderoga, and 
completely commanding the fort. General Schuyler saw it, but even while he 
pointed out the danger, and while General St. Clair, the commandant of tlie post, 
declared that from the want of troops nothing could be done, the drums of 
Burgoyne's army were joyfully beating in the summer dawn ; the bugles rang, the 
cannon thundered, the rising .June sun shone on the scarlet coats of British grena- 
diers, on the bright helmets of German dragoons, and on burnished artillery and 
polished arms. There were more than seven thousand trained and veteran troops 
besides Canadians and Indians. They were admirably commanded and equipped, 
although the means of land transport were fatally insufficient. But all was hope 
and confidence. The battle flags were unfurled, the word was given, and with 
every haj^py augury, the royal standard of England proudly set forward for con- 
quest. On the 1st of July, the brilliant pageant swept up Lake Champlain, and 
the echoes of the mighty wilderness which had answered the guns of Amherst 
and the drum-beat of Montcalm, saluted the frigates and the gunboats that, led by 
a dusky swarm of Indians in bark canoes, stretched between the eastern shore, 
along which Riedcsel and the Germans marched, and the main body advancing 
with Phillips upon the west. The liistoric waters of Champlain have never seen 
a spectacle more splendid than the advancing .army of Burgoyne. But so with his 
glittering Asian hordes, two thousand 3'ears before, the Persian king advanced to 
Salamis. 

At evening the British army was before Ticonderoga. The trained eye of the 
English engineers instantly saw the advantage of Sugar-loaf, the higher hill, and 
the rising sun of the .5th of July glared in the amazed eyes of the Ticonderoga 
garrison, on the red coats intrenched upon Sugar-loaf, with their batteries com- 
manding every point within the fort, and their glasses every movement. Sugar- 
loaf had become Jlount Defiance. St. Clair had no choice. All day he assumed 
indifference, but quietly made every preparation, and before dawn the next day 
he stole away. The moon shone, but his flight was undetected, until the flames 
of a fire foolishly set to a house suddenly flashed over the landscape and revealed 
his retreat. He was instantly pursued. His rear guard was overtaken, and by 
the valor of its fierce but hopeless fight gave an undying name to the wooded hills 
of Hubbardton. . 

Ticonderoga fell, and the morning of its fall was the high hour of Burgoyne's 
career. Without a blow, by the mere power of his presence, he had undone the 
electric deed of Ethan Allen ; he had captured the historic prize of famous cam- 
paigns. The chief obstruction to his triumphal American promenade had fallen. 
The bright promise of the invasion would be fulfilled, and Burgoyne would be the 
lauded hero of the war. Doubtless his liandsomo lip curled in amused disdain at 
the flying and frightened militia, plough boys that might infest but could not im- 
pede his further advance. His eager fancy could picture the delight of London, 
the joy of the clubs, of parliament, of the king. He could almost hear the royal 
George bursting into the queen's room and shouting, "I have beat all the Ameri- 
cans." He could .almost read the assurance of the mini-ster to the proud earl, his 



270 Centennial Celebrations. 

fatlier-in-law, that the King designed for' him the vacant Red Ribbon. But his 
aspiring ambition surely anticipated a loftier reward — a garter, a cornet, and at 
last Westminster Abbey and undying glory. 

Ticonderoga fell, and with it, apparently, fell in Europe all hope of the patriot 
cause ; and in America, all confidence and happy expectation. The tories were 
jubilant. The wavering Indians were instantly open enemies. The militia sul- 
lenly went home. The solitary settlers fled southward through the forrests and 
over the eastern hills. Even Albany was appalled, and its pale citizens sent their 
famOies away. Yet this panic stricken valley of the upper Hudson was now the 
field on which, if anywhere, the cause was to be saved. Five counties of the State 
were in the hands of the enemy ; three were in anarchy. Schuyler was at Fort 
Edward with scarcely a thousand men. The weary army of St. Clair, shrunken 
to fifteen hundred continentals, all the militia having dropped away, struggled 
for a week through the forest, and emerged forlorn and exhausted at the fort. 
Other troops arrived but the peril was imminent. New York was threatened at 
every point, and with less than five thousand ill-equipped regulars and militia to 
oj^pose the victorous Burgoyne, who was but a single long day's march away, with 
only the forts and the boom and chain in the Highlands to stay Clinton's assent 
from the bay, and only the little garrison at Fort Stanwix to withstand St. Leger, 
General Schuyler and the council of State implored aid from every quarter. A 
loud clamor, bred of old jealousy and fresh disappointment arose against Schuy- 
ler, the commander of the department, and St. Clair, the commander of the post. 
The excitement and dismay were universal, and the just apprehension was most 
grave. But when the storm was loudest it was pierced by the calm voice of 
Washington, whose soul quailed before no disaster : "We should never desjiair; 
our situation has before been unpromising and has changed for the better ; so I 
trust it will be again." He sent Arnold to Schuyler, as an accomplished officer, 
familiar with the country. He urged the eastern states to move to his succor. He 
ordered all available boats from Albany to New Windsor and Fishkill, upon 
the Hudson, to be ready for any part of his own army that he might wish to de- 
tach. While thus the commander-in-chief cared for all, each cared for itself. 
The stout hearted George Clinton, and the council of New York were thoroughly 
aroused and alert. Vermont called upon New Hampshire, and the White Moun- 
tains answered to the Green by summoning Stark and Whipple, who, gathering 
their men, hastened to the Hudson. 

While this wild panic and alarm swept through the country, Burgoyne remained 
for a fortnight at the head of Lake Champlain. He, also, had his troubles. He 
was forced to garrison Ticonderoga from his serviceable troops. His Indian allies 
began to annoy him. Provisions came in slowly, and the first fatal weakness of 
the expedition was already betrayed in the inadequate sujiply of wagons and 
horses. But the neighboring tories joined him, and counting upon the terror tliat 
his triumphant progress had inspired, he moved at the end of July from Lake 
Champlain toward the Hudson. His march was through the wilderness which 
Schuyler had desolated to the utmost, breaking up the roads, choking with trees 
the navigable streams, destroying forage, and driving away cattle. But Burgoyne 
forced his way through, building forty bridges and laying a log- wood road for two 
miles across a morass. The confidence of triumph cheered the way. So sure was 
victory, that as if it had been a huge pleasure party, the \vives of officers accom- 
panied the camp, and the Baroness Riedescl came in a calash from Fort George tc 
join her husband with Burgoyne. But before that slowly toiling army, the star- 



ScHliYLERVILLE. 271 

tied frontier country fleil. Almost every jiatriot house west of the Green moun- 
tains and north of Jlanchester was deserted. The tories, proud of British pro- 
tection, placed signs in their liats and before their doors and upon the liorns of 
their cattle, wearing tlie tory badge, as Gurth wore the collar of Cedric the Saxon, 
To us the scene is a romantic jiieture. The scarlet host of Burgoyne flashes 
tlu'ough the forest with pealing music; the soldiers smooth the rough way with 
roystcring songs; the trains and artillery toil slowly on; the red cloud of savages 
glimmers on his skirts, driving before him farmers with wives and eliildren, faint 
and sick with cruel apprehensions, flying through a land of terror. To us, it is a 
picture. But to know what it truly was, let the happy farmer on these green 
slopes and placid meadows, imagine a sudden flight to-night witli all he loves 
from all he owns, struggling up steep hills, lost in tangled woods, crowding along 
difficult roads, at every step expecting the glistening tomahawk, the bullet, and 
the mercies of a foreign soldiery. Not many miles from this spot, the hapless 
Jane Mac Crea was killed as Burgoyne's savages hurried her away. Her story rang 
tlirough the land like a woman's cry of agony. This, then, was British chivalry! 
Burgoyne, indeed, had not meant murder, but he had threatened it. The name 
of the innocent girl became the rallying cry for armies, and to a thousand indig- 
nant hearts, her blood cried from the ground for vengeance. We come with song 
and speech and proud commemoration to celebrate the triumph of this day. Let 
us not forget the cost of that triumph, the infinite suffering that this unchanging 
sky beheld; the torture of men; the heartbreak of women; the terror of little 
children, that paid for the happiness which we enjoy. 

Burgoyne reached the Hudson unattacked. As he arrived, although he had no 
tidings from below, he heard of the successful advance in the valley of the 
Mohawk. St. Leger had reached Fort Stanwix without the loss of a man. It 
was necessary, therefore, for Burgoyne to hasten to make his junction at Albany 
with Howe and St. Leger, and on the Gth of August he sent word to Howe that 
he hoped to be in Albany by the 23d. But, even as be wrote, the blow fatal to his 
hopes was struck. On that very day the patriots of Tryon county, men of Ger- 
man blood, led by Nicholas Herkimer, were hastening to the relief of Fort Stan- 
wx, which St. Leger had beleaguered. The tale has just been eloquently told to 
fifty thousand children of the Jloliawk valley gathered on the field of Oriskany, 
and it will be told to their children's children so long as the grass of that field 
shall grow, and the waters of the 3Iohawk fiow. In the hot summer morning, 
Herkimer and his men marched under the peaceful trees into the deadly ambush, 
and in the depth of the defile were suddenly enveloped in a storm of fire and 
death. Ah! blood-red field of Oriskany! For five doubtful desperate hours, 
without lines, or fort, or artillery, hand to hand, with knife and rifle, with toma- 
hawk and spear, swaying and struggling, slipping in blood and stumbling over 
dead bodies, raged the most deadly battle of the war. Full of heroic deeds, full 
of precious memories ; a sacrifice that was not lost. The stars that shone at even- 
ing over the field, .saw the Indian and the white man stark and .stifl, still locked 
in the death grapple, still clenching the hair of the foe, still holding the drii)])ing 
knife in his breast. The brave Herkimer, fatally wounded, called for his Bible 
and tranf|uilly died. He did not relieve the fort, but it held out until Benedict 
Arnold, sent by Schuyler, coming up the valley, craftily persuaded St. Leger's 
Indians that his men were as the leaves of the forest for number. The savages 
fled ; St. Leger's force melted away ; the ^lohawk expedition had wholly failed, 
and the right hand of Burgoyne was shattered. 



272 Centennial Celerkations. 

Every day lost to the English genoral was now a disaster. But his fatal impro\'i- 
denee forced him to iniietion. He could not move witho\it sujiplies of food and 
liorses, and an expedition to secure them would also serve as a diversion to favor 
St. Legcr. Three days after Oriskany, and before he had heard of that battle, 
Burgoyne detached tlie expedition to Bennington. New England was ready for 
him tluTC as New York had been at Stanwi.K. Parson Allen from Pittslicld rame 
in his chaise. Everybody else came as he eould, and when the British advance 
was announced, John Stark marched his militia just over the line of New York, 
where the enemy was intrenched on the uplands of the Walloomsic, and skillfully 
surromiding them, the Yankee farmers who had hurried away from their summer 
work, swept up the hill with fiery and resistless fury, seized the blazing gims, 
drovt^ the veteran troops as if they were wolves and wild cats threatening tlieir 
farms, and after a lull renewing the onset against fresh foes, the New England 
militia won the famous battle of Bennington, and the left hand of Burgoyne was 
shattered. 

So soon was the splendid promise of Ticonderoga darkened. The high and 
haughty tone was changed. " I yet do not despond," wrote Burgoyne on the 20th 
of August, and he had not yet heard of St. Leger's fate. But he had reason to 
fear. The glad light of Bennington and Oriskany had pierced the gloom that 
weighed upon the country. It was everywhere jubilant and everywhere rising. 
The savages deserted the British camp. The harvest was gathered, and while 
New England and New York had fallen fatally upon the flanks of Burgoyne, 
AVashingtou now sent Virginia to join New York and New England in his front, 
detaching from his own army Morgan and his men, the most famous rifle Corps of 
the Revolution. Indeed, Burgoyne's situation was worse than he knew. It now 
appears that the orders of co-operation with him were not sent to Lord Howe. 
Lord Shelburne in a memorandum upon Lord George Germaine, recently published, 
says of the inconsistent orders, given to the two Generals in America, that Lord 
George was very impaticMit of trouble, and that he had ai)poiuted to call at his 
office and sign the despatches, but by some mistake those of Lord Howe's were 
not fairly copied ; Lord George would not stop and the clerks promised to send 
them to the country. But then ensued f orgetfulness and delay, and the packet 
sailed without Lord Howe's orders. Of this, however, Burgoyne knew nothing. 
He was still comiting upon the active co-operation of Lord Howe, while he chafed 
under his own mishaps. But while the American prosjiect brightened. General 
Schuyler, by order of Congress, was superseded by General Gates. Schuyler, a most 
sagacious and diligent officer whom Washington wholly trusted, was removed for 
the alleged want of his most obviovis quality, the faculty of comprehensive organi- 
zation. But the New England militia disliked him, and c\-cu Sanruel Adams was 
ini])atieiit of him; but Samuel Adams was also impatient of Washington. Public 
irritation with the situation, and jealous intrigue in camp and in Congress pro- 
cured Schuyler's removal. He was wounded to the heart, but his patriotism did 
not waver. He remained in camp to be of what service he could, and he entreated 
Congress to order a speedy and searching inquiry into his conduct. It was at last 
made, and left him absolutely unstained. He was unanimously acquitted witli the 
highest honor, and C(nigress apin-oved the verdict. General Schuylei- did not 
again enter upon active military service, but he and Rnfus King were the first 
senators that New York sent to the senate of the United States. Time has restored 
his fame, and the history of his State records no more patriotic name among her 



SciIUYLERVILLE. 273 

illustrious sons than tliut which is rommcraorated by this village, the name of 
Philip Schuyler. 

Largely re-enforced, Gates, on the 12th of September, advanced to Bemus 
Heights, -which the young Kosciusko had fortified, and there he awaited Bur. 
goyne's approach. Burgoync's orders had left him no discretion. lie must force 
his way to Albany. With soldierly loyalty, therefore, he must assume that Howe 
was pushing up the Hudson, and that his own delay might inijieril Howe by jier- 
mitting the Americans to turn suddenly upon him. On the 1 1th of September he 
announced to his camp that he had sent the lake fleet to Canada, that he had vir- 
tually abandoned his communications, and that his army must fight its way or 
perish. On the 13th he crossed the Hudson, and then received his first tidings 
from Howe, in a letter from him written long before, and which did not even 
mention a junction. Burgoyne had already felt himself deserted if not betrayed, 
and he comprehended his critical situation. Howe was on the Delaware and 
Carleton would give him no aid from Canada. The country behind him was 
already swarming with militia. He was encamped in a dense forest, vnth an 
enemy hidden in the same forest before him, whose drum-beat and morning gun 
he could hear, but whose numbers and position he did not know. Yet while he 
could see nothing, every movement of his own was noted by an eagle eye in a 
tree top on the eastern side of the Hudson, and reported to Gates. And when at 
last Burgoyne marched out in full array, with all the glittering pomp of war, to 
find the foe in the forest, Gates instantly knew it. Burgoyne boldly advanced, 
his communication with Canada gone, the glory of Ticonderoga dimmed, the 
union with Howe uncertain, disaster on the right hand and on the left, the peer- 
age and Westminster Abbey both fading from hope, and he suddenly confronted 
breastworks, artillery and an eager army. He must fight or fly, nor did he hesi- 
tate. At eleven o'clock on the morning of the lOth of September, he advanced 
in three columns toward Gates's line on Bemus Heights. At one o'clock the 
action began; at four it was general and desperate; at five, Burgoync's army was 
in mortal peril; at nightfall the Germans had stayed the fatal blow, and the battle 
ended. Both sides claimed the victory, and the British bivouacked on the field. 
As on Bunker Hill, the first battle in America which Burgoyne had seen, if this 
were a British victory another would destroy the British army^ 

Burgoyne luuldled his dead into the ground, hastily intrenched and fortified a 
new position, soothed a discouraged army and meditated a fresh assault. But 
receiving the good news of Howe's success at the Brandywine, and of the 
immediate advance of Clinton, who had been left in command in the city of New 
York, to break through the Highlands of the Hudson and fall upon the rear of 
Gates, he decided to wait. He was encamped in the wilderness without commu- 
nications, but he sent word to Clinton that he eould hold out until the 12th of 
October. Again through the forest he heard the morning and evening gun and 
the shouting of the American camp, and once the joyful firing of cannon that he 
could not understand, btit which announced American victories in his rear. The 
alarm of the British camp was constant. The picket firing was incessant. 
Officers and men slejit in their clothes, rations were reduced, and the hungry 
army heard every night the howling of the wolves that haunted the outskirts of 
the camp as if making ready for their jirey. At last, with provisions for sixteen 
days only, and no news from Chnton, Burgoyne summoned his generals for a final 
council. It was the evening of the 5th of October, and, could he but have 
known it, Howe, at Qermantown, had again succeeded, and Sir Henry Clinton 
35 



274 Centejstjstial Celebrations. 

was just breaking his way tlirougli the Highlands, victorious and desolating. On 
the very morning that Burgoyne fouglit his fatal battle the river forts had fallen, 
the boom and chain were cleared away, the marauding British fleet sailed into 
Newburgh bay, Clinton sent word gaily to Burgoyne, "Ilereweai-e! nothing 
between us and Albany," while Putnam was hastening up along the eastern bank 
and George Clinton along the western, rousing the country and rallying the flying 
citizens from their alarm. Of all this Burgoyne knew nothing. In his extremity 
his own plan was to leave boats, provisions and magazines, for three or four daj's, 
and falling ujjon the left of the Americans to attempt to gain the rear. The Ger- 
man General, Riedesel, advised falling back toward the lake. The English Fraser 
was willing to fight. The English Phillips was silent. Compelled to decide, 
Burgoyne at last determined to reconnoitre the Americans in force, and if he 
thought that an attack would be unwise, tlien to retreat toward the lake. 

On the morning of the 7th of October, at ten o'clock, fifteen hundred of the 
best troop)s in the world, led by four of the most experienced and accomplished 
generals, with a skirmishing van of Canadian rangers and Indians, moved in 
three columns toward the left of the American position into a field of wheat. 
They began to cut forage. Startled by the rattling picket fire, the American- 
drums beat to arms, and the British ajiproach was announced at head-quarters. 
Morgan and the Virginia sharpshooters were thrown out beyond the British right. 
Poor, with the New York and New Hampshu-e men, moved steadily through the 
woods toward the British left, wliich began the battle with a vigorous cannonade. 
The Americans dashed forward, opened to the right and left, flanked the enemy, 
struck him with a blasting fire, then closed and grappling hand to hand, the mad 
mass of combatants swayed and staggered for half an hour, five times taking and 
re-taking a single gun. At the first the fire upon the left, the Virginia sharp- 
shooters, shouting, and blazing \vith deadly aim, rushed forward with such fury 
that the apjialled British right wavered and recoiled. While it yet staggered 
under the blow of Virginia, New England swept up, and with its flaming mus- 
kets broke the English line, which wildly fled. It reformed and again ad\'anced, 
while the whole American force dashed against the British center, held by the 
Germans, whose right and left had been uncovered. The Germans bravely stood, 
and the British General Fraser hurried to their aid. He seemed upon the British 
side the inspiring genius of the day. With fatal aim an American sharp-shooter 
fired and Fraser fell. With him sank the British heart. Three thousand New 
Yorkers, led by Ten Broeck, came freshly up, and the whole American line, 
jubilant with certain victory, advancing, Bvu-goyne abandoned his guns and ordered 
a retreat to his camp. It was but fifty-two minutes since the action began. The 
British dismayed, bewildered, overwhelmed, were scarcely within their redoubts, 
when Benedict Arnold, to whom the jealous Gates, who did not come upon the 
field during the day, had refused a command, outriding an aid whom Gates had 
sent to recall him, came spurring up ; Benedict Arnold, whose name America does 
not love, whose ruthless will had dragged the doomed Canadian expedition 
through the starving wilderness of Maine, who volunteering to relieve Fort Stan- 
wix had, by the mere terror of his coming, blown St. Leger away, and who, on 
the 19th of September, had saved the American left, — Benedict Arnold, whom 
battle stung to fury, now whirled from end to end of the American line, hurled 
it against the Great Redoubt, driving the enemy at flic point of the bayonet; 
then flinging himself to the extreme right, and finding there the Massachusetts 
brigade, swept it with him to the assault, and streaming over the breastworks, 



SCIILVI.KUVILLE. 275 

scattered the Brunsmckers who defended them, killed their colonel, gained and 
held the point wliich commanded the entire British position, while at the same 
moment his horse was shot under him, and he sank to the ground wounded in the 
leg that had been wounded at Quebec. Here, upou the Hudson, where he tried 
to betray his country, here upon the spot where, in the crucial hour of the Revo- 
lution, he iUustrated and led the American valor that made us free and great, 
knowing well that no earlier service can atone for a later crime, let us recall for 
one brief instant of infinite pity, the name that has been justly execrated for a 
century. 

Night fell, and the w^eary fighters slept. Before day dawned, Burgoyne, ex- 
hausted and overwhelmed, drew ofi the remainder of his army, and the Americans 
occupied his camp. All day the lines exchanged a sharp fire. At evening, in a 
desolate autumn rain, having buried solemnly, amid the flash and rattle of bombs 
and artillery, his gallant friend, Fraser; leaving his sick and wounded to the 
mercies of the foe, Burgoyne who, in the splendid hour of his first advance had 
so proudly proclaimed " this army must not retreat," turned to fly. He moved 
imtil nearly day-break, then rested from the slow and toilsome march untO toward 
sunset, and on the evening of the 9th he crossed Fish creek and bivouacked in 
the open air. A more vigorous march — but it was impracticable — would have 
given him the heights of Saratoga, and secured the passage of the river. But 
everywhere he was too late. The American sharpshooters hovered around him, 
cutting off supplies, and preventing him from laying roads. There was, indeed, 
one short hour of hope that Gates, mistaking the whole British army for its flnng 
rear-giiard, would expose himself to a destructive ambush and assault. "When 
the snare was discovered, the last hope of Burgoyne vanished, and unable to stir, 
he sat down grimly north of the creek, where his army, wasted to thirty-four 
hundred effective men, was swiftly and completely encircled by the Americans, 
who commanded it at every point, and harassed it with shot and shell. Gates, 
with the confidence of overpowering numbers, purposely avoided battle. Bur- 
govne, deserted by his allies, his army half gone, with less than five days' food, 
with no word from Clinton, with no chance of escape, prepared honorably to 
surrender. 

On the 14th of October he proposed a cessation of arms to arrange terms of 
capitulation. His agent, Lieutenant-Colonel Kingston, was received at the cross- 
ing of the creek by Adjutant-General Wilkinson, and was conducted by him, 
blindfolded, to General Gates. Gates's terms required an unconditional surrender 
of the army as prisoners of war. Burgoyne, anxious to save his army to the king 
for service elsewhere, insisted that it should be returned to England, under engage- 
ment not to serve again in North America during the war. Gates had no wish to 
prolong the negotiations. He had heard from Putnam that the English array and 
fleet were triumphantly sweeping up the river, and that he must expect "the 
worst,"' and he therefore hastened to accejit the proposition of Burgoyne. But 
Washington, with his Fabian policy, scorned even l)y Samuel and John Adams, 
had made "the worst" impossible. Hanging upon the army of Howe, engaging 
it. although unsuccessfully, at the Brandywine and at Germantown, he had per- 
])lexed, delayed and disconcerted the British general, gaining the time which was 
the supreme necessity for success against Burgoyne. By reason of Washington's 
operations, Howe could not strengthen Clinton as they both expected, and Clinton 
could not move until his slow re-enforcements from over the sea arrived. When 
they came, he burst through the Highlands indeed, with fire and pillage, and 



276 Centennial Celebrations. 

hastened to fall upon the rear of Gates. But before he could reach him, while 
still forty miles away, he heard the astounding news of Burgoyne's surrender, and 
he dropped down tlie river sullenly, back to New York, he, too, baffled by the 
x'igilaneo, the wariness, the supreme self-command of Washington. 

For a moment, when Burgoyne heard of Clinton's success, he thought to avoid 
surrender. But it was too late. He could not, honorably, recall his word. At 
nine o'clock on the morning of this day, a hundred years ago, he signed the con- 
vention. At eleven o'clock his troops marched to this meadow, the site of old 
Fort Hardy, and with tears coursing down bearded cheeks, with passionate sobs 
and oaths of rage and defiance, the soldiers kissing their guns with the tender- 
ness of lovers, or with sudden frenzy knocking off the butts of their muskets, 
and the drlimmers stamping on their drums, the king's army laid down their arras. 
No American eyes, except those of Morgan Lewis and James Wilkinson, aids of 
General Gates, beheld the surrender. As the British troops filed afterward 
between the American lines, they saw no sign of exultation, but they heard the 
drums and fifes playing " Yankee Doodle." A few minutes later, Burgoyne and 
his suite rode to the head-quarters of Gates. The English general, as if for a 
court holiday, glittered in scarlet and gold ; Gates plainly clad in a blue overcoat, 
attended by General Schuyler in citizen's dress, who had come to congratulate 
him, and by his jiroud and happy staff, received his guest with urbane courtesy. 
They exchanged the compliments of soldiers. " The fortune of war. General 
Gates, has made me your prisoner." Gates gracefully replied, "I shall always 
be ready to testify that it has not been through any fault of your Excellency." 
The generals entered the tent of Gates and dined together. With the same courtly 
compliment the English general toasted General Washington, the American 
general toasted the king. Then, as the English army, without artillery or arms, 
approached on their march to the sea, the two generals stepjied out in front of the 
tent, and standing together, conspicuous on this spot, in full view of the Ameri- 
cans and of the British army. General Burgoyne drew his sword, bowed, and 
presented it to General Gates. General Gates bowed, received the sword, and 
returned it to General Burgoyne. 

Such was the simple ceremony that marked the turning-point of the Revolution. 
All the defeats, indeed, all the struggles, the battles, the sacrifices, the sufferings, 
at all times and in every colony, were indispensable to the great result. Concord, 
Lexington, Bunker Hill, Moultrie, Long Island, Trenton, Oriskany, Bennington, 
the Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, Monmouth, Camden, Cowpen, Guilford, 
Eutaw Springs, Y'orktown, — what American does not kindle as he calls the 
glorious battle roll of the Revolution! whether victories or defeats, are all essen- 
tial lights and shades in the immortal picture. But, as gratefully acknowledging 
the service of all the patriots, we yet call Washington father, so mindful of the 
value of every event, we may agree that the defeat of Biu-goyue determined 
American independence. Thenceforth it was but a question of time. Tlie great 
doubt was solved. Out of a rural militia an army could be trained to cope at 
every point successfully with the most experienced and disciplined troops in the 
world. In the first bitti'r moment of his defeat, Burgoyne generously wrote to a 
military friend, '• .V better armed, a better bodied, a more alert or better prepared 
army in all essential points of military institution, I am afraid is not to be found 
on our side of the question." The campaign in New York also, where the loyal- 
ists were strongest, had shown, what was afterward constantly proved, that the 
British crown, despite the horrors of Cherry Valley and Wyoming, could not 



SciIUYLERVILLE. 277 

count upon general or elTective aid from the toriesuor from tlie Indians. At last it 
was plain that if Britain would conquer, slie must overrun and crush the conti- 
nent, and that was imiiossiblo. The shrewdest men in England and in Europe 
saw it. Lord Xortli himself, King George's chief minister, owned it, and grieved 
in his blind old age that he had not followed his conviction. Ednuii\d Burke 
would have made peace on anj- terms. Charles Fox exclaimed that tlie ministers 
knew as little how to make peace as war. The Duke of Richmond urged the 
impossibility of conquest, and the historian Gibbon, who in parliament had voted 
throughout the war as Dr. Jolinson would have done, agreed that America was 
lost.-' The king of France ordered Franklin to be told that he should support the 
cause of the United States. In April he sent a fleet to America, and from that 
time to the end of the war, the French and the Americans battled together on sea 
and land, until on this very day, the seventeenth day of October, 1781, four years 
after the disaster of Burgoyne, Cornwallis, on the plains of Yorktown, proposed 
a surrender to the comljined armies of France and the United States. The terms 
were settled upon our part jointly by an American and a French officer, while 
Washington and La Payette stood side by side as the British laid down their arms. 
It was the surrender of Burgoyne that determined the French alliance and the 
French alliance secured the final triumph. 

It is the story of a hundred years ago. It has been ceaselcssl}- told by sire to 
son, along this valley and through this land. The latter attempt of the same foe 
and tlie bright day of victory at Plattsburgh on the lake, renewed and confirmed 
the old hostility. Alienation of feeling between the parent country and the child 
became traditional, and on both sides of the sea a narrow prejudice survives, and 
still sometimes seeks to kindle the embers of that wasted fire. But here and now 
we stand upon the grave of old enmities. Hostile breastwork and redoubt are 
.softly hidden under grass and grain; shot and shell and every deadly missile are 
long since buried deep beneath our feet, and from the mouldering dust of min- 
gled foemen springs all the varied verdure that makes this scene so fair. While 
nature tenderly and swiftly repairs the ravages of war, we suffer no hostility to lin- 
ger in our hearts. Two months ago the Briti.sh governor-general of Canada was 
invited to meet the president of the United States, at Bennington, in happy com- 
memoration not of a British defeat but of a triumph of English liberty. So, upon 
this famous and decisive field, let every unworthy feeling perish ! Here, to the 
England that we fought, let us now, grown great and strong with a hundred 
years, hold out the hand of fellowship and peace ! Here, where the English Bur- 
goyne, in the very moment of his bitter Inmiiliation, generously pledged George 
Washington, let us, in our high hour of triumph, of power, and of hope, pledge 
the queen ! Here, in the grave of brave and unknown foemen, may nuitual jeal- 
ousies and doubts and animosities lie buried forever ! Henceforth, revering their 
common glorious traditions, may England and America press always forward side 
by side, in noble and inspiring rivalry to promote the welfare of man ! 

Fellinv citizens, with the story of Burgoyne's .surrender — the revolutionary 
glory of the State of New York — still fresh in our memories, amid these thou- 
.sands of her sons and daughters, whose hearts glow with lofty pride, I am glad 
tluit the hallowed spot on which we stand compels us to remember not only the 
imperial state, but the national commonwealth whose young hands here together 
struck the blow, and on whose older head descends the ample benediction of the 
victory. On yonder height, a hundred years ago. Virginia and Pennsylvania lay 
encamped. Beyond, and further to the north, watched Kew llampshirc and Ver- 



278 Centennial Celebrations. 

mont. Here, in the wooded uplands at the south, stood New Jersey and Kew 
York, while across the river to the east, Connecticut and Massachusetts closed the 
triumphant line. Here was the symbol of the Revolution, a common cause, a com- 
mon strife, a common triumph ; the cause not of a class, but of human nature — 
the triumph not of a colony, but of United America. And we who stand here 
proudly remembering — we who have seen Virginia and New York — the North 
and the South — more bitterly hostile than the armies whose battles shook this 
ground — we who mutually proved in deadlier conflict the constancy and the 
courage of all the States, which, proud to be peers, yet own no master but their 
united selves — we renew our heart's imperishable devotion to the common Amer- 
ican faith, the common American pride, the common American glory ! Here 
Americans stood and triumphed. Here Americans stand and bless their memory. 
And here, for a thousand years, may grateful generations of Americans come to 
rehearse the glorious story, and to rejoice in a supreme and benignant American 
Nationality. 



BUEGOYNE. 

A Poem by Alfred B. Street. 

When fell Rome's fabric, dire the ruin wrought; 

With spectral twilight all the earth was fraught; 

A few stars shone that twilight to illume 

Where Superstition groped in Gothic gloom. 

To cloistral walls fled Learning in affright 

Missals to blazon mystic scrolls indite. 

What though breathed music in Provencal bowers, 

And Architecture wreathed its fadeless flowers; 

Built the dim church, with painted panes aglow, 

And arched the abbey on its pillars low ; 

Though Painting, of all Nature's hues the heir, 

Enameled canvas into jewels rare ; 

The loftiest wtues of the soul lay dead. 

Right, swordless, crouched beneath Wrong's conquering tread, 

And though grand Freedom's essence never dies, 

It drooped, despairing, under despot-skies. 

If aught it asked, Darius like, the Throne, 

At its awed look, in wrathful lightnings shone. 

Its food the acorn and its home the cell, 

Its only light but showed its manacle ; 

Until its eye, at throned Oppression's foot, 

Saw slavery's towering tree, its heart the root. 

Cast Upas shadow o'er one common grave, 

With naught but its own soul its life to safe. 

And then it rose; up \vith one bound it sprung; 

Tlmnder from a clear sky, its war-shout rung; 

Out flashed its falchion with a sunburst wide. 

And wakened thousands sought its warrior side. 

As the mist streaming from some towering crag, 



ScilUYLEliVILLE. 279 

It spnad till' lilazon of its glittering flag; 

In savage gorges which the vulture swept, 

lu lonely caverns where the serpent crept. 

Close where the tumbling torrent hurled its spray. 

And shadowy cedars twined a twilight day, 

Clutching its sword and battling on its knee. 

Still Freedom fought ; and though the swelling sea 

Of cruel Wrong yet drove it, struggling, higher, 

It could not quench its pure, celestial fire ; 

From peak to peak it rose, until the height 

Showed it but heaven wherein to take its flight. 

Round flew its glance, it saw its myriad foes 

FoUowdng, still following, rising as it rose; 

Following, still following! -was no refuge nigh? 

Naught on the earth, and only in the sky? , 

Round flew its glance, it pierced beyond the wave? 

Ha ! the New World emerges ! — shall it save? 

Hark, a wild cry ! — it is the eagle's scream ! 

See, a broad light, the far league-conquering stream 

Linking all climates, where it reaching flows, 

Its head the snow-drift, and its foot the rose. 

Mountains rise there that know no tread of Kings; 

Blasts that waft liberty on chainless wings ; 

Lakes that hold skies, the swallow tires to cross; 

Prairies, earth-oceans ; woods, a whirlwind's toss 

Would seem a puny streak ; and with one tongue 

All thundered " come! " the w'elkin, echoing, rung 

" Come ! " and it went ; it took its Jlay flower flight. 

Fierce raged the blast, cold billows hurled their might. 

Winter frowned stern, he pierced to Freedom's heart ; 

White spread the strand, and Hunger reared his dart ; 

The tree-crouched panther met, by day, its sight, 

The wolf's eye starred the window-pane at night; 

Thouo'h winter entered in its heart, he braced 

With strength its frame ; its feet the forest traced. 

Despising hardship; by the torrent rocked 

Its baVk canoe; the wild tornado shocked 

Way through the prostrate woods and, grazing, sent 

No dread, as by its roof thc'-horror went; — 

From choice it climbed the dizzy cliff to glance 

Over its realm's magnificent expanse. 

There the vast forest stood, the free, the green. 

The w-ild, a tangled, thronging, vaulted scene. 

In mantling emerald stretched its wavy floor 

Carpets of moss and vines rich spreading o'er; 

There, the white cohosh, furzy sumac, gems 

Of the wild allspice, grass and clover stems, 

And strawberry, the curious Indian pipe, 

The creeping pine that lays its fringy stripe 



28U Centennial Celebrations. 

Beside the running hemlock ; liigher stood 

Oak, beach and majile sprouts, a brotherhood 

Twin-leaved ; the branchy fern and feathery brake ; 

Still higher, the dense bushes wreathed, that make 

A sea waist-deep ; the saplings higher still ; 

Then loftier leaves that, one twined ceiling, fill 

The eye ; and towering over all, the pine 

And hemlock, whose green crowns forever shine 

In light, or frown in gloom, and feel the breath 

Of every wind; while, motionless as death. 

The depths below; througli this cleft roofing, pries 

The sunshine ; vistas open where the skies 

Admit the grass to grow and bird to build. 

The flowers to flourish and the sunlight gild. 

Through ambush green the little mole-rill tells 

Its burrowing by its purl along the dells ; 

Mounds in the soft, black mould proclaim the dens 

Of reedy marmot, fox and rabbit ; fens 

Bristle ; vast swamps of laurel spread around 

In pools where trees dead, spectral, stand; the ground 

Sodden with wet, yields rank, green slime and moss 

To old, black logs and branches fallen across; 

In hideous contrast to the lovely green 

And living things of the surrounding scene. 

Here glance the graceful d^ear ; the panther prowls ; 

The big, black bear jolts round; the gaunt wolf howls; 

The small, red tribesmen of the woodland swarm. 

Live their glad summer lives, and nestle warm 

In their close winter haunts ; the eagle claps 

His pinion here ; the famished vulture flaps 

In searching flight ; the pigeon of the wood 

Colors the green with blue ; her downy brood 

The partridge hides at danger's sign ; the quail 

Chequers the vista's gold ; its nightly wail 

The whippoorwill repeats; till Autumn's sad 

Katydid dirge proclaims that all things glad 

Are leaving; then October's sunset glows 

And Winter's twilight brings the choking snows ; 

Broadening the picture, here, grand rivers rolled, 

Grand mountains rose ; and in their numbers bold, 

Wild focmen thronged with tomahawk and knife 

Ready to whelm in most unequal strife. 

But what of these ! a stalwart heart and arm 

Freedom upbore, the danger owned a charm. 

And in the forest with bold tread it trod 

Waging the contest for itself and God. 

And soon blithe harvests waved where forests frowned ; 

Roofs studded rivers; and in gladdening sound 

The song of Peace and industry arose, 



SCHUYLEKVILLE, 28 1 

Where ))urst the war-whoops of unsparing foes; 

And cliuieli-siiiies pointed where up towered the pine; 

And Freedom pUiuted sure its ever-living shrine. 

Oh! glorious Freedom ! grandest, brightest gift 
Kind heavoa has given our souls to heavenward lift ! 
Oh ! glorious Freedom ! are there hearts so low 
That its live flame finds there no answering glow? 
It soars sublime beyond the patriot's love, 
Stateliest that sways, save thought that dwells above ! 
Slaves love their homes ; a patriot glad will die 
For Native land, thougli she in chains may lie; 
Noblest Ijy far, the soul tliat loves to fall 
In the red front at Freedom's sacred call; 
His heart right's shield, he braves the Despot's ban 
Not for himself to perish, but for man. 

So when crowned Wrong made here his first advance, 
Flashed from our fathers, wrath's immediate glance ; — 
Freedom their life, the sceptre but essayed 
Attempt, to send their swift hand to their blade. 
Theii- serried front said "stay!" their eyes "beware! 
'■ Rouse not the still prone panther from his lair! " 
But vain the mandate, vain the warning spoke, 
The ICing strode onward and the land awoke. 

Stately the sight. Recording history shows 
When the red walls of our Republic rose ! 
Reared in deep woods, beneath a scarce -known sky, 
In puny strifes that hardly claimed the eye 
Of lands still trembling with the tluindering track 
Of Saxe and jMarlborough ; where startling, back 
Russia's black Eagle had the Crescent hurled, 
Threatening so late to dominate the world. 

In a grand age our Nation opened eye! 
A dazzling sunshine bathed the mental sky; 
Voltaire his keen bright darts of wit still sent; 
Rousseau his tender moonlight sentiment; 
Napoleon's star was rising to absorb 
All space in grandeur of his fierce, wild orl); 
Painting wore garland that Sir Joshua wreathed; 
Promethean life Canova's marble breathed ; ' 

Cowper was shedding his soft gentle strains 
Over old England's rustic fields and lanes ; 
Burns, lyric lark! whose nest was by the plow, 
Forming his song-pearls for his Scotia's brow; 
At Oarrii-k's art the Drama laughcil and grieved; 
In Dilidin's sailor songs, pleased Ocean heaved; 
Johnson was building up his pomi) of words; 
36 



282 Centennial Celebrations. 

White hearkening speecli from animals and birds ; 

Goldsmitli had just, by death, from his resort 

Been freed, his picturesque, craclved, clothes-lined court ; 

Linnaeus was yielding language mute to flowers; 

Gibbon re-rearing Rome's majestic towers; 

Herschel, with daring clutch, was making prize 

Of God's grand secrets in the startled skies ; 

Burke shedding round his rich auroral gleams ; 

Pitt weaving Britain in a web of schemes ; 

While Cook, his far away sea-bird wing unfurled. 

Searching Pacific's dim, mysterious world 

Weltering round isles where Fancy reared her throne, 

In scenes to Learning's utmost lore unknown. 

Mid all this affluence of deed and thought 

With which this age of majesty was fraught, 

Two war-cries rung on a new nation's breath, 

This from the warm South, ' ' Liberty or Death ! " 

This from the cold North, l^oth stern shouted thence, 

" Nothing for tribute, millions for defense! " 

Up sprung a land with weapon bared for use, 

Like Pallas bounding from the brow of Zeus. 

The Revolution, our Heroic Age ! 

Its deeds, its times should every heart engage I 

Not in the mist of mythic doubt it lies ; 

Its fingers touch us and it fills our eyes. 

The household antlers hold the musket yet 

Which rang at Concord ; — that bent bayonet 

Glittered at Yorktown ; — yea, but few years back, 

The grand-sire lingered who had seen the track 

Of famed Burgoyne a century ago, 

Wlio bowed his haughty head before his generous foe. 

Yea, a Heroic Age ! athwart the breast 
Of many a battle-field, its seal is prest ; 
In woods, still sighs the pine for many a lost ; 
Fields in thick waves, by many a grave are crossed 
Many the deeds that dear Tradition keeps; 
Many the heart with household fame that leaps. 

The dead that perished! many and many a shrir.e 
Is strewed around where tenderest memories twine ; 
In gloomy gorges where the eagle wheels, 
Under the storm-cliEE where the thunder peals, 
In grassy dingles where the wild-bird sings, 
By the bright streamlet where the cowslip swings, 
In rocky glens where cascades whiten down. 
In cliasms where hemlocks cast eternal frown, 
In woods where wail the wnds without a break, 



SciIU-i-LEKVILLK. ^83 

In lonely cloaiins and '>}' sail-white lake, 

There sleep the brave; we reap the seed they sowed! 

Cherish their memories then, while memory holds abode. 

On Concord green, the rustic king's arm woke ; 
And Bunker donned his battle helm of smoke; 
Clnbbing his musket, on he strode to where 
His footstep led him through the Lion's lair; 
The Union Flag, with crosses of St. George 
And Andrew, and the stripes in Freedom s forge 
Wrought like hot steel's white crimson hues, appeared 
At Cambridge camp, by Washington up-reared; 
(The crosses sign of our yet loyalty ; 
The stripes significant we would be free) ; 
The foe was swept from Boston, but his tread 
Was o'er the Excelsior City's humbled head; 
Washington, printing Jersey with his blood, 
Fled from the foe, then o'er the icy flood 
Of Trenton sent the king his Christmas-dole 
Launched in tierce lightnings from his wrathful soul; 
And then his New Year greeting, where the height 
Of Princeton gleamed in victory's gladdening light. 

The Crown surveying thus the varying tide 
Of conquest, towering in its haughty pride, 
In close debate, at last its plan evolved, 
And on one final crushing blow resolved. 

Ne-w England, east of the Excelsior State, 
In. its stern hills and rocky vales, the great 
And teeming camp for freedom's battles, formed; 
West, the wild lakes with savage nations swarmed, 
That struck the war-post for their sire, the King; 
Could Britain's arm, in one grand effort, swing 
A blow to cleave the Excelsior State beneath ; 
New England's blade were powerless in its sheath ; 
Their portals spread, the Great Lakes woiild outpour 
Their fierce red floods to whelm the region o'er, 
The struggling, hopeless South, then, part by part. 
Would yield, till freedom left the nation's heart. 

Three threatening strands were woven by the Crown; 
One stretching up Champlain; one reaching down 
The Mohawk Valley whose green depths retained 
Its Tory heart, Fort Stanwix scarce restrained; 
And one of Hudson's flood ; the three to link 
Where stood Albania's gables by its brink. 

Glance at the picture — ere we spread our wing — 
Of the grand battle whose famed deeds wc sing! 
Here spreads Champlain with mountain skirted shore 



284 Centennial Celebrations. 

Caniadere Ct-uwentie, open door 

Of the fierce Iroquois to seek their foes 

In regions stretching from Canadian snows. 

"West, in a purple dream of misty crag, 

The Adirondacks' wavy outlines drag; 

East, the Green Mountains, home of meadowy brooks. 

Of cross road hamlets, sylvan school-house nooks, 

Church-covered hOls and lion-hearted men 

Taught by the torrent tumbling down the glen. 

By the grand tempests sweeping around the cliff. 

By the wDd waters tossing by their skiff 

Freedom, till freedom grew their very life 

And slavery with all earthly curses rife. 

Kext, the dark Horican* that mountain vein. 

Bright islet-spangled tassel to Champlain ; 

The highlands souled with Washington and grand 

With his high presence watching o'er the land ; 

Thy heights, oh Bemus ! green with woods yet white 

With flakes of tents, zigzag with works and briglit 

With flags ; while, in perspective, we discern 

Grouped round great Washington, with features stern 

In patriot care and doubt, the forms of Wayne 

Putnam and Green and all the shadowy train 

Of Congress, wrapt spectators from afar. 

Of where fierce battle drove his fiashing, thundering car. 

As when some dream tumultuous fills the night 

With changeful scenes, and plunges past the sight 

In hazy shapes, and dark looks, till at last 

With all its weird, wild phantasm, it is past, 

So the broad pictm-e as it melts away, 

And once more in our heart peals out the trumpet-lay. 

A deep stern sound ! the starting signal roar ! 

And up Champlain Burgoyne's great squadron bore. 

In front his savage ally's bark canoes 

Flashing in all their bravery wild of hues ; 

Their war-songs sounding and their paddles timed ; 

Next the batteaux, their rude, square shapes sublimed 

With pennon, sword and bayonet, casting glow 

In penciled pictures on the plain below : 

From winter lingering in the Indian Pass, 

Mantled the locust; as in April grass 

Rich dandelions burn, the basswood showed 

Its bells of yellow ; while the dogwood glowed 

In a white helmet thickly plumed atop ; 

The earlier cherry let its sweet pearls drop 

With every breeze ; the hemlock smiled with edge 

* Lake George is beginning to be known at last as Lake Horican, so named by the great American 
novelist, Cooper. 



SciU'YLEKVILLE. 285 

Fringed in fresh emerald ; even tlie sword-like sedge, 

Sharp raid the snowj' lily-goblets set 

In the nooked shallows like a spangled net, 

Was jeweled with brown bloom. By curving point 

Where glittering ripples nmber sands anoint 

With foamy silver, by deep crescent bays 

Sleeping beneath theii- veil of drowsy haze, 

By watery coverts shimmering faint in film. 

Broad, rounded knolls one creamy, rosy realm 

Of laurel blossom with the kalmia-urns 

Dotted with red, the fleet, as sentient turns 

The winding channel ; in tall piles of white 

The stately ships reflect the golden light 

Dazzling the lake ; the huge batteaux ply deep 

Their laboring, dashing pathway ; fronting, keep, 

With measured paddle-stabs, the light canoes 

Their gliding course ; the doe, upstarting, views 

And hides her fawn ; the panther marks the scene 

And bears her cubs within the thickets screen ; 

The wolf lifts sharpened ear and forward foot; 

Waddles the bear away with startled hoot 

As some sail sends a sudden flash of white 

In the cove's greenery, slow essaying flight 

The loon rears, flapping, its checked, grazing wings, 

Till up it struggling flies and downward flings 

Its Indian whoop; the bluebird's sapphire hue 

Kindles the shade ; the pigeon's softer blue 

Breaks, swarming, out ; the robin's warble swells 

In crumply cadence from the skirting dells ; 

And restless rings the bobolink's bubbly note 

From the clear bell that tinkles in his throat. 

Thus stately, cheerily moves the thronging fleet ! 

On the lake's steel the blazing sunbeams beat ; 

But now a blast comes blustering from a gorge ; 

The white caps dance; it bends the tall St. George 

And even the Thunderer tosses ; the array 

Breaks up; canoe, batteau, grope doubtful way 

Through the dim air; in spectral white, each sail 

Glances and shivers in the whistling gale ; 

All the green paintings of point, bank and tree 

Vanish in black and white, and all but see 

A close horizon where near the islands lose 

Their shapes, and distant ranks nf forest fuse 

Into a mass ; at length the blast flies off 

Shallows stop rattling, and the hollow cough 

Of surges into caves makes gradual cease 

Till on, the squadron glides, once more in siinny peace. 

So on some blue-gold day white clouds up-float 
In shining throng, and next are dashed remote 



286 Centennial Celebrations. 

By a fierce "wind, then join in peace again 

And smoothly winnow o'er the lieaveuly plain ; 

Or so some fleet of wild fowl on the lake, 

Dipping and preening, quiet journey take, 

Till the sky drojis an eagle circling low 

For the straight plunge ; wild scattering to and fro 

They seek the shed of bank, the cave of plants, 

Tunnel of stream, wherever lurk their haunts, 

Until the baffled eagle seeks again 

His sky, and safely holds once more, his reign. 

When lay Champlain in eve's gold plated glass 
And rich, black pictures etched the glowing grass. 
The crews debarked ; their camp-fires round would rear 
And hang their kettles for their nightly cheer ; 
Then rose the tents, like mushrooms, to the moon; 
Swords would be edged and muskets polished ; soon 
Slumber would fan its wings, and in the bright 
Soft, delicate peace, would croon the Summer Night. 

Then the gray day-dawn through the leaves would look ; 
Ked coats would gleam in every emerald nook 
And weapons glitter; as the mist would crawl 
From the smooth lake and up the forest wall, 
Sails would shine out and blottings of canoe 
Blent with batteau would thicken on the view ; 
Rings of dead ashes, prostrate trees half burned. 
Trunks into black Egyptian marble turned 
"Where curling fires had scorched the streaky moss, 
Roofs of dead leaves where branches stooped across 
And soil bvu-ned black and smoking still, would show 
Where through the night had shone the camp-fire glow, 
Limbs drooping loose and logs with gaping cuts 
Where the brigade had reared their bushy huts ; 
A deer's head on the stump, a bear-skin cast 
Beneath, where late the red man held repast ; 
The drum's beat then would sound, and shrilly fife ; 
Dingle and aisle would flash with martial life ; 
Once more the fleet would start, and up its way 
Take as the whole scene brightened into day. 

On Lady Mary's deck Burgoyne would stand 
Drinking the sights and sounds at either hand 
Replete with beauty to his poet-heart; 
Laughing to scorn man's paltry works of Art. 

The grassy ^'ista with its grazing deer ; 

The lone loon oaring on its shy career ; 

The withered pine-tree with its fish-hawk nest; 

The eagle-eyrie on some craggy crest ; 



SciIUYLERVlLLE. 287 



The rich white lilies that wide shallows told; 

Their yellow sisters with their globes of gold 

At the stream's mouth ; the ever changefvil Lake ; 

Here, a green gleaming, there, a shadowy rake 

Of scudding air-breath; here, a dazzling flash 

Searing the eyeball ; there a sudden dash 

Of purple from some cloud; a streak of white 

The wake of some scared duck avoiding sight ; 

The dogwood plumed with many a jiearly gem, 

Was a bright queen with her rich diadem; 

An oak with some crooked branch up pointing grand, 

A monarch with his sceptre Ib his hand ; 

A rounded root a prostrate pine-tree rears 

A slumbering giant's mighty shield appears ; 

A long-drawn streak of cloud with pendent swell 

Of hill, a beam with its suspended bell; 

In some grey ledge, high lifted up, he sees 

An ancient castle looking from its trees ; 

Some mountain's rugged outline shows the trace 

Of the odd profile of the human face ; 

A slender point tipped with its drinking deer 

Seems to his losdicr eye a prostrate spear ; 

In the near partridge-pinion's rolling hum. 

He hears, with smiles, the beating of the drum ; 

And in the thresher's tones with music rife, 

The stirring flourish of the whistling fife ; 

And thus his fancy roams, till twilight draws 

Around the fading scene its silver gauze. 

A golden, lazy summer afternoon ! 

The air is fragrant with the scents of June 

Wintergrecn, sassafras and juniper. 

Rich birch-breath pungent mint and spicy fir 

And resinous cedar ; on Carillon's walls 

The sentry paces where cool shadow falls; 

His comrade sits, his musket on his knee, 

Watching the speckling gnats convulsively 

Stitching the clear dark air that films some nook. 

He hears the dashing of the Iloricau brook 

Loud at the West — that curved and slender chain 

By which the Tassel hangs upon Chaniplain ^ 

It chimes within his ear like silver bells. 

And the sweet jangling only quiet tells; 

In front he sees the long and leafy points 

('\irving the waters into elbow-joints 

Of Bays ; a crest beyond the old French Lines, . 

Domes the flat woods; east, opposite, inclines 

Mount Independence, its .sloped summit crowned 

With its star-fort, with battery breast-plate boiuul, 

The floating bridge between, the massive boom 



288 Centennial Celebrations. 

And chain in front, and in the rearward room 
A group of patriot craft ; and sweeping thence 
The forest landscape's green magnificence. 
Southward the lake a narrowed river bends 
With one proud summit where the brook suspends 
Horican's tassel to King Corlaer's* crown, 
Close to Carillon's dark embattled frown. 

Sunset its arrows through the fortress shot ; 

In velvet softness shone the warlike spot ; 

Gold filled embrasures, walls in rich array 

Stretched betwixt bastions ; shadows crawled away 

To nooks and angles, or slept cool and dark 

Within the ball-coned corners ; many a spark 

The cannon glanced, their grim mouths bright in sheen 

With muskets yoked to pyramids between. 

Owned the steel-pointed spear beside him cast, 

Sudden one starts! around the northward curve, 

Turrets of white, in stately motion, swerve. 

With blocks, like giant beetles, stretched in rank. 

Canoes, batteaux and boats ! and either bank 

In gleam and flash with moving spots of red. 

Telling the coming f oeman's landward tread ; 

While hovering in the front, like ducks, in nooks 

Of the bent banks and coves of entering brooks. 

In the ^\Teathed lilied sliallows, mid the drift 

Of brush-wood bays, white rapids shooting swift, 

Or threading some low brink's impending arch. 

The patriot watch-boats warn the approaching march ; 

The flashing shores, the moving fleet between, 

Making a picture of the sunset scene. 

Through roused Carillon quick the story flies; 

Guns change to groups and loopholes stare \vith eyes. 

Up glides the flag, defiant shouts outbreak; 

Soon would Burgoyne his backward pathway take ! 

Swift will Carillon's thunder hurl his doom 

Even ere he splintered on the barrier-boom ! 

Ah, false belief! ah, mocking cheer ! but stay! 

Let sad experience the fell truth display ! 

Twilight creeps grayly forth ; the French Lines crest 
And Sugar Loaf in dreamy blue are drest ; 
Glimmers the Lake, the sails, in dusky white. 
Seem ghosts half merged within the pallid light ; 
Peace with her soft, warm stars, breathes o'er, till soon 
Rosy and roundly lifts the whitening moon. 

* French name for Ticonderoga. 



SciIUYLERVILLE. 289 

A silver painting now the scene displays ; 
The forests glitter and the waters blaze ; 
Carillon's black is turned to tender white 
Where the moon enters with transforming light; 
Bastions are sleeked, grim curtains smootlied, and loops 
Dart streaks of pearl o'er ball and musket-groups ; 
The hostile sails are brightened into snow ; 
The woods seem slumbering in the mantling glow; 
The French Lines summit surges on the sky; 
Peaceful and soft and quiet to the eye 
Looks towering Sugar Loaf ! could Carillon's sight 
Have pierced the distance, what a shuddering fright 
Had seized his heart ! there, struggling groups of men 
Clambered rough rocks; the torrent of the glen 
Sprinkled strained ropes that lifted cannon up 
From tree to tree ;. the hollow's ferny cup, 
The cavern's lichcned ledge, the panther's lair, 
The wolf's close haunt, the chamber of the bear, 
Felt trampling throngs all fighting toward the top; 
The moonlight mountain, as they climbed, let drop 
Its varied sounds ; its car had never before 
Hearkened such tumult ; thus the night hours bore 
The chequered pictures to the tints that make 
Day-break cartoons of forest and of lake. 

The scene now glimmers with the frescoes drawn 
By the gray pencil of the rising dawn ; 
Then the white pictures painted by the mist; 
Then the east's rim by living radiance kissed ; 
Sugar Loaf glitters in the crimson hues ; 
Not those the dyes the morning beams diffuse! 
Like a dense curtain up the mist is rolled ; 
The Lake expands in point and headland ; bold 
Tlie woods stand forth, the vessels whiten out; 
And a fresh summer sunrise smiles about. 
Carillon gazes ; those rich tints now here 
Now there, gleam brokenly and disappear; 
Is that a banner-flash? that brassy glow 
Cast by a cannon ? yes ! it is the foe ! 
Carillon shudders ; there he naked stands 
His vain-drawn weapons useless in his hands ; 
Certain destruction threatens from on high ; 
Naught can avert, like lightning from the sky. 

On the warm ledges of the mountain's crest 
Starred with blue harebells o'er the velvet breast 
Of fringy moss, the red-coat sentry sees, 
As sunset glitters through the golden trees, 
Carillon quiet, with his sullen frown. 
Seeming in slumber ; Night with pearly crown 
37 



290 Centennial Celebrations. 

Follows ; what glare bursts sudden forth ! the sheen 

Startles to fierce, wild, crimson life, the scene ! 

It shows dark masses through the floating bridge 

Streaming where Independence rears its ridge, 

Streaming from bared Carillon ; on the Lake 

A fleet of patriot boats and galleys take 

Their upward path; Mount Hope, the Frencli Lines crest 

Named by the foe to mark tlie joyous zest 

Its capture gave — sends Fraser, battle-famed, 

In quick pursuit; while j\Iount Defiance — named 

From Sugar Loaf to show his scorn — yields too 

Its throngs exultant, eager to pursue. 

Within the eastward woods they plunged, in rear 

Of the retreating foe ; by moonlight clear 

And mottled gloom, the rough road led them on ; — 

O'er zigzag rails the elder blossoms shone 

Like silver lanterns ; on the banks, in spots 

The foxfire glared ; the yager over knots 

Of roots groped slow, his spatterdashes soaked 

In the fern's dew, his bayonet frequent yoked 

With branches ; the chasseur's huge helmet now 

Cleaved the low leaves like some aerial plow. 

And now the grenadier of Earner crushed 

His sharp cap on some ledge as by he brushed. 

Dawn its gray glimmer through the gloom distils ; 

Then morning glitters on the Pittsford hills. 

At Hubbardtou the patriot foe makes pause, 

And Battle, for the first his falchion draws. 

But stay not, Song, thy fairy sandal here ! 

The lyre is mute at whistle of the spear ! 

Let but one cadence, brief and mournful, tell 

How Fraser triumphed and how Francis fell. 

While on St. Clair through wilds, torn, bleeding, passed 

Until Fort Edward refuge gave at last. 

Meanwhile, Burgoyne pursued the patriot fleet 

Up the cm'ved narrowing Lake ; the glittering sheet 

Showed now their path, and now, where high banks wound, 

Hidden the waj' ; Morn flings her jewels round 

Where the lake's head sweeps, crescent like, about. 

And Skenesboro' stands with store-house and redoubt ; 

Moored, there, the patriot-craft ; but soon War claims 

His horrid spoil ; the sjiot is wrapped in flames 

Waked by the patriots and Bui-goyne ; at night 

Brave Long, with his Carillon force in flight. 

Threads a blind pathway tunnelled through the trees 

To where Wood Creek Fort Anne's earth-rampart sees. 

All night, a stump or bush, along their road. 
Like a crouched savage lurking for them, showed. 



SCUUYLKKVILLK. -91 

Or flushes of some hunter's camp-fire looked 

Like red-coats ; witli a log, buside them nooked, 

Seeming a cannon to dispute tlieir way; 

So on they stniggkd till the rich moon's ray 

Shrank in the rosy brilliancy of day. 

Haste, likewse, from this spot, oh Song! thy lyre 

Too frail for thunder-tones; the battle-fire 

Makes its gold strings too hot for thy soft touch: 

In the bright spear thou secst the wretched crutch 

Of the maimed soldier ; in the trumpet's twang 

Thou hear'st the orphan's cry; yet if the clang 

Of war could joy thee, well thy tones could ring 

Here, where the Lion felt the Eagle's wing 

Cut keen and deep ; but as thy tones expire, 

Haste I scenes more grateful claim thy jeweled lyre. 

Face to the foe brave Schuyler down retreats ; 
Fort Edward's ruined bastions now he greets ; 
His thin ranks thinning with the thickening days 
Now Saratoga meets his longing gaze. 
In vain ! no refuge ! on 1 till Mohawk's smile 
Welcomes the wanderer to her safety-isle. 

Days roll along; at length Burgoyne begins 
His downward march, but progress brief he wins. 
Schuyler, with prescient, patient toil, had wrought, 
Till the wide pathway of the foe was caught 
Within a web of levelled woods, of streams 
Bridgeless, paths choked, tangles of broken beams, 
Smooth avenues beckoning to quick-sand swamps, 
xVll shackling every step; war's glittering pomps 
Turned to a huddling, struggling, writhing mass 
Striving with wild, con\Tilsive strength, to pass. 

Thus, the wroth region flings itself across 

The invader's path ; the pines and hemlocks toss 

Their mighty amis, ask hoarse through windy leaves 

"Why comes he here? " the towering windfall weaves 

Its torturing net ; the bog its treacherous length 

Clutching the footstep, wearying down the strength. 

Spreading its Indian plumes in crimson glow 

As if to warn him of the blood to flow; 

The streamlet, hid in nooks of sunken logs 

And marshy reeds, the ponderous cannon clogs; 

Vainly the gallant Jones swift plies his scourge. 

His buried battcrj--wheels can scarce emerge ; 

The hoof of Fraser's stout grey warhorse sinks 

In flowerj- mire ; Riedesel's sabre clinks 

On the prone trunk his barb essays to scale; 

Low boughs the flag, wrapped round its staff, assail ; 



292 Centennial Celebrations. 

Order was lost ; the sword of the chasseur 
Jostled the drum ; the trail the moccasin wore 
The musket widened to a path ; o'er hill 
Through vale, beside the little lyric rill, 
Over ravines by prostrate trees, they wend 
From morn till evening's blurring shades descend. 

Here, zigzag breast-works, left so late, the print 
Of leaving feet shows fresh ; the crushed down mint 
There, telling where the gun was hauled away 
Prom the embrasure; pickets in array 
"With none to man them ; on, thus, on, they go, 
Weary with seeking a dissolving foe. 

The Kingsbury marshes shine one blusliing hue 

Of rarely absent Indian plumes ; in blue 

Of moose-heads, glow the streams; warm mulber tints 

Display the rushes in wet nooks ; a cliintz 

Of lovely tinges in the glossy browns 

Of piny knolls their own hue nearly drowns 

In flowery dyes ; and in gi-een dells is spilt 

A mass of color like a brindled quilt. 

The running-hemlock's drops of ruddy wax, 

The hanging honeysuckle's streak)' sacks, 

The yet scarce aster, and the golden rod 

Whose curling plume begins to light the sod, 

Kindle their path with all the wealth of flowers 

That Summer summons to her forest bowers. 

At night, the camp-fire's mighty eyeballs glare 
In flashing rings ; the trees around them stare ; 
The grenadier's red coat shines one fixed blush; 
The Hessian's crimson cap takes livelier flush; 
Here, gleams a buckle ; there, a feather-plate ; 
A brazen clasp; in all his painted state 
The Indian stands and edges by the glow 
Anew his hatchet for the coming foe. 

As on, Burgoyne — Fear files before, around, 
With ear erect to catch the faintest sound, 
And eyes wild starting every sight to see; 
Is that a red-coat glancing from a tree? 
Or sunset's straggling beam? that sound, the tramp 
Of the approaching foe? the hunter's camp 
Cowers lonely in the woods; the settler's hut 
Has lost its latch-string, and its door is shut. 
The ambushed trap lurks baitless by the creek ; 
The deer treads fearless to the pearly lick ; 
The cattle-group have left the rubbing-tree. 
In far away coverts they roam wild and free ; 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 293 

The ripened rye lies matted round the stumps ; 
Through whitening buckwheat bold the rabbit jumps, 
Among the graining corn licneath the moon 
Nibbles, unmarked, the seated, shy raccoon i 
The back-log blackens where the kettle sung; 
The cat stalks ghostly where the clock-tones rimg 
To merry household groups ; and the dust pearls now 
The fringed asparagus, whose mounded bough 
Filled the wide hearth-stone; in the yard, the axe 
Lies in the chips late showering from its hacks; 
And the dry grindstone hangs its wheel of gray 
Stirless; and but half -pitched, stands by its loft, the hay. 

War's red romance now claims the sorro\\Tiig lyre ! 
Love's victim I let the trumpet-tones expire ! 
No dulcet strain beneath the moonlit sky ; 
The mournful cadence breathes but one long sigh. 
Ah, hapless maiden ! ah, poor Jennie McCrea? 
The Wyandotte Panther grasps his hapless prey ! 
Ah, savage heart ! he aims — she falls ! the sweep 
Of glorious tresses, black as midnight, heap 
The wampum belt! ah, lovely, lovely head, 
By the unsparing knife so foully shred ! 

But let the minstrel of the period tell 

How that dark deed, that murder base, befell. 

The mill his muse, its great throb beat the strain 

Of the poetic measure in his brain ; 

Its gliding straps the lines in smoothness wrought; 

Its hoppers, reservoirs of stirring thought ; 

The wheat wove golden pictures as it poiu-ed-; 

The tireless millwheel music as it roared ; 

And all the region round, witli blended will, 

Hailed as the minstrel, Robbie of the Mill. 

This ruthless slaughter claimed his tuneful tongue. 

Though shudderings shook Ms soul, aud thus he sung: 

List all you good people my sorrowful lay. 

While I sing the sad doom of poor Jennie McCrea. 

She waited her lover, her lover to join, 



lie came, the fierce savage, preceding his path 

As the cloud with the lightning red launching its wrath. 

She waited her lover, instead of him came 
The Wyandotte Panther with eyeballs of flame. 

He seized her, and bearing her up on his way. 

From her steed shot the maiden, poor Jennie McCrea? 



29-1 Centennial Celebkations. 

Another fierce savage, as demon-like, shred 
The long glossy-locks from her beautiful head. 

Weep, souls of soft pity ! weep over this woe ! 

Swear, hearts of stern vengeance ! to strike back the blow ! 

Let us peal forth the shout, as we rush to the fray, 
The loud, wrathful war shout of "Jennie McCrea!" 

For as sure as God lives, will he deeply repay 
The dark, bloody deed of poor Jennie McCrea. 

With soldier songs down treads the exultant foe, 
Down -n-ith the region showing wild its woe. 
"Britons retreat not," boasts Burgoyne; and down. 
Still down, his buoyant march. Can fortune frown 
On such a host, rebelhon foul to crush 
With courage burning, and with conquest flush ? 
But while he boasts thus, bright with fortune's sun, 
"Never despair," rings out from Washington. 
In his wild Highland " Clove" he fixes gaze 
With dauntless spirit, and the scene surveys. 
As some grand eagle poising in the sky. 
Sees the wide prospect with unwavering eye ; 
Clouds roll around him, veiUng aU the light; 
Yet through the darkness, penetrates his sight 
To where the sun is waiting forth to spring. 
And o'er all Natm-e gleams of gladness fling. 
So he, and on his heart, amid the storm. 
He upward bore the Nation's fainting form. 

Turn we to other scenes ! In beauty bright 

The Mohawk Valley claims our wandering sight 

Veined by its river; loveliest landscapes smiled 

On every side, the rural and the wild. 

Here, shone the field in billowy gold, and there. 

The shornless forest twined its leafy lair. 

Here, the red homestead weltering in its wheat ; 

There, the rude shanty in its green retreat ; 

Where the plow paused, the trapper hid his trap ; 

The kinebeU mingled with the rifle's clap; 

The league-long sable-line stretched on, where ceased 

The farm-lane with the frequent hay cart creased. 

The jutting, loop-holed block -house standing guard 

O'er the rude hamlet by its pickets barred. 

Along the river, poled the heaped batteau; 

O'er tlie rough roads the wagon jolted slow; 

And civilization reared her school-house, where 

.The skin-clad hunter lately slew the bear. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 295 

At the green valley's head Fort Stanwix stood, 

Its bastions, half restored, ringed close with wood, 

Smooth meadows, southward to the Mohawk led 

North, De-o-wain-sta's mile-long portage spread 

To wild Wood Creek whicli linked beneath its screen 

With Lake Oneida"s rich, transparent green. 

Opening that region where a fringe of lakes 

Hangs from a skirt of wilderness that makes 

A sylvan border to the southern flow 

Of the grand inland sea, Ontario; 

Those watery pendents not disordered flung, 

But seeming as in measured spaces hung 

To ornament Ontario's emerald dress 

With tassels of pure, diamond loveliness. 

A band of boats spots dark Oswego's breast; 

St. Leger's corps, Fort Stanwix to invest; 

Where foamed the Falls, they plunge within the woods 

In battle order; the wild solitudes 

Glitter with knife and musket; massive boots 

Tear through tlie thickets, stumble over roots ; 

Here, the lithe Indian's light, elastic bound, 

There, the slow yager's tramp ; the Ranger found 

His old hacks on the trees when other days 

Saw him a trapper ; and the sylvan maze 

Welcomed tlie Royal Green whose erewhile tread. 

Tracked, as the hunter, where the runway led. 

Oneida shines between the stems ; again 

They launch their barks upon the grass- hued plain ; 

They fright the wild duck from her haimt, they rouse 

The fish-hawk from her pine-built nest; they mouse 

Around some lurking bay; they penetrate 

Tunnels of branches where the shores create 

Roofs of dim, watery caves; when dayhght fades. 

The Indians, tramping through the forest shades, 

Kindle their camp-flres like great panther eyes. 

And dance their dances; the flotilla plies 

Dabbling, still upward, till the boats they beach 

At the Creek's mouth, and soon Fort Stanwix reach, 

Where gallant Gansevoort and biavc Willett stand. 

To hurl defiance at the coming band. 

Gansevoort, the young, the gallant, with a soul 

That only knew bold duty for its goal. 

AVhat though the walls were incomplete! behind 

Uptowered a heart no abject fear could bind ! 

To the foe's threat his fort-made flag he reared, 

Sustained by patience, and by courage cheered ; 

When came demand to yield, lie calm replied 

With firm refusal, and tlii' worst defied 



296 Centennial Celebrations. 

Down the green valley fly the tidings ; swift 

The Germans spring; the living torrents drift 

To the Fort's aid ; by day, the thronging trees 

Are freckled with quick glints; steel glitterings seize 

Upon the leaves and change them to white gems; 

By night the camp-fires dance along the stems, 

Turn green to ruddy gold, and black to red, 

BuUd crimson roofs and floors of carmine spread, 

Bold Herkimer has left, to lead the band, 

His hearth, half fortress and Iialf house, to stand 

Defenseless on the Mohawk ; many a roof 

A rustic manor-house, walls bullet proof. 

Stately in terraces and shrubbery. 

Old oaks, green walks to dingle, statued tree 

Eagle-shaped thicket, bushes carved to deer 

And wolf, and whose huge hearth glared red vntli cheer, 

Fragrant with woodland feasts, is left to breeze 

And sunshine and protecting walls of trees 

While the roused dwellers march with Cox the brave, 

And Paris, their loved sylvan soil to save 

From the invader's tread ; the farm-house, too. 

With broad piazza, dormer windows, hue 

Of red, and native poplars belted round. 

Whose leaves in hot days yield a cooling sound. 

With the vast barn of stone, a fort at need ; 

And pastures where sleek cattle, frequent steed 

And flock luxuriate, also sends its tlirongs 

Wild to avenge the invaded region's wrongs 

And smite the foe ; the hamlet, likewise, set 

At grassy cross-roads, where the rude church met 

The ruder Inn, in whose broad, straggling streets 

Neighbor, 's\'ith news of humblest import, meets 

With neighbor, where the learned surveyor dwells 

Who chains wild lots, and where the Justice spells 

The law to litigants, the liunter claims 

Bounty for wolf -scalps, lighting fallow-flames 

The settlers strive with handspike and with axe. 

Seeing their buckwheat-plats and meadow-stacks 

Melting, sends freemen to drive back the foe. 

Their sluggish bosoms warmed to patriot-glow. v 

And the lone dingle, where the shanty's shape 

Juts from the windfall's orb — a jaw agape — 

With pan and kettle under the propped lid 

Of the rough ox sled, where the spring is hid 

In the sunk barrel, and on hemlock-fringe 

The inmate sleeps, but up at daylight's tinge 

For trap or runway, lone the shanty sees 

As the wild dweller, groping by blazed trees, 

Wades his dim way to join the patriot band 

Summoned to drive the foeman from the land. 



SCIICVLKUVIIJ.K. 297 

Together blent at last, the gallant throng 

Down tlic rough roatl, unmindful, streams along; 

A hollow lies in front ; the patriots reach 

Its causeway: with a sudden burst and screech 

Of rifle shots and warwhoops, savage forms 

Rise from the marshy borders; hissing storms 

Of bullets rain upon the broken ranks 

That strive to rally; from the deadly banks 

Blazes swift death ; the painted warriors dash 

Wild in the whirling midst ; knives, hatchets flash 

And foes mad throttle; Indian, German, close 

In grapple ; Ranger, neighbor, meet as foes 

Bosom to bosom ; as speeds fierce the fray 

The Germans form in circles and repay 

Carnage with carnage ; Herkimer has dropi)ed 

But still directs the furious conflict propped 

Against a friendly stem ; a flashing wakes 

Fiercer and redder, a loud tumult breaks 

Grander and sterner than the deadly scene, 

The battle of the skies ! its mightier mien 

Of loftier anger checks the lesser strife, 

But as it marches off, the fight for life 

Rages anew with fiercer, wilder burst. 

For now the Royal Greens, friends, neighbors erst 

Yea brothers of their foes, have joined the fight 

And Havoc greets them with renewed delight. 

Here, the clubbed rifle, there, the thrusting spear 

And plunging knife; Cox, Paris fall ! career 

The steeds of slaughter through that awful dell 

Till baffled, l>caten, the cowed redskins swell 

Their shrill retreating cries, and quick the form 

Of battle strides away, as strode the storm 

From the red dell; down, quiet settles sweet; 

The bobolink gurgles, and the yellow feet 

Of the checked partridge print the neighboring scene, 

But Nature to itself consigns the dread ravine. 

During the sky's fierce onslaught, at the Fort 

A whirlpool raged of strife; the sallyport 

Sent Willett forth to .Tohnson's camp at hand. 

And drove him headlong; evening's air-breaths fanned 

The sylvan Fort in its renewed repose, 

While night closed sad on its disheartened foes. 

Down to Fort Edward, now Burgoyne has passed. 
Want gnaws his forces; his red allies fast 
Forsake his darkening path ; but full sripplies 
At Bennington are stored, war's welcome prize 
Of food and steeds. Hoosic's green landscapes sound 
With Baum's approach; its rustic roads are ground 
38 



298 Centennial Celebkations. . 

With cannon- wheels ; the red-coat grenadier 
And green chasseur trudge on, the promised cheer 
Brightening their brows; but lion-hearted Stark 
Stands with his rural ranks before the mark. 

A picturesque, rude church its little bell 

Tinkles one Sabbath morn ; wild hills upswell 

About a hamlet with its palisade. 

Meadows of grass stretch out and fields arrayed 

In ripening grain; bold Parson Allen mounts 

The rustic pulpit, and with fire recounts 

How boastful, vain Burgoyne has hither sent 

Baum's fierce dragoons on schemes of plunder bent. 

" Rouse men of Berkshire, I will lead you ! meet 

" The red-coat foe ! " all spring ujjon their feet ; 

The hunter leaves, within the hamlet-square, 

The frowning carcass of the sable bear; 

The trapper slings his traps upon his back ; 

The settler cuts his latch-string ; to his stack 

The farmer ropes his ox ; the sawmill sings 

No longer to its dam ; the slider brings 

No more the prone log to the severing saw ; 

The steed stamps idly the locked stable's straw ; 

The miller brushes from his coat the meal. 

And his white rafters hear no more the wheel; 

All flock, with Parson Allen at their head, 

Down the wild hills ; the heavens their torrents shed, 

But on they strea:m to where with his platoons. 

Stark waits the coming of the Baum dragoons. 

For days along the dim and rainy scene 

Had glimpsed the red-coat host ; but now serene 

Glitters the summer day ; Walloomsac's banks 

View in their rude array the patriot ranks. 

Stark mounts the meadow fence; "see, men," says he, 

"The red-coats ! ours by sundown they must be 

Or Molly Stark's a widow ! " words that claim. 

Though quaint, the tongue of overliving Fame. 

The golden quiet of the afternoon, 

The forests sleeping and the fields in tune, 

Is broken by the battle; twice the throat 

Of War roars forth its fierce and fiendish note ; 

In vain the Hessian battery hurls its death ! 

Up climbs the foe albeit no blasting breath 

Of cannon aids them; up, still up! they sweep 

The Tory ranks away ; like panthers leap 

Over the breastwork; vahi the weighty sword 

Of the chasseur! as sunset's gold is poured 

Along the scene the Hoosic woods ring out 

Freedom's great thunder-voice, hei- grand victorious shout. 



ScHUYLEKVILLE. 290 

On glide the days; the Lion Banner droops 

Over Fort Edwurd's walls. Burgoyne still stoops 

His ear for Cliutou's hoped approach ; instead 

Oriskauy and Bennington with dread 

Seize ou his heart and paralyze his strength ; 

And thus time drags along its lazy length; 

The chasseur sees the leafy Deadman's Point 

Drowsing in noon's hot haze ; the dews anoint 

The Balm of Gilead at the water-gate 

That lately reared its green and three-trunkcd state, 

With honey dew for bees whose murmurings fill 

The drummer boy with sleep; on Jennie's Ilill 

Beside the rustic breastwork overgrown 

With brambles by rich, ripening raspberries strown, 

The hunter pauses with his hound to look 

Down in the Fort; within some shady nook 

He sees the grenadier in coarse, red cap 

Playing with dice ; upcm some grassy lap 

The green-garbed Hessian mends his spatterdash, 

The Sergeant crooks his chevron, and his sash 

The ensign twines; all speak of peaceful day; 

And as the limping partridge hires away 

The hunter from her brood, on Panther Hill 

He meets the trapper who, with hearty will 

Says Schuyler calls all patriots to his side, 

And toward Cohoes both speed with willing stride. 

On Rogers Island, lazy red-coats stray 

Among its shades to pass the summer day; 

Or seek the Griffin House where cattle browse 

In stumpy pastures, for a night's carouse ; 

Tramp the Old Lumber Road where, on its creek 

The ruined saw-mill yields no more its click ; 

Where blackened shingles and prone logs stripped nude 

And broken stone-boats, all around are strewed ; 

Or wander the Old Military Road, 

Where stares for hoiu-s the unmolested toad ; 

Wade through the marsh to gather Indian plumes, 

Or seek the foot-path full of chequered glooms; 

Hang on the wreck of Bagky's Bridge athwart 

Fort Edward's creek, whose pools are the resort 

Of |)oising trout; or, Black Tom roping slow, 

Cross McCrea's ferry in liis rough batteau. 

Others along the Richlield Plains would wend, 
Between Forts Anne and Edward, at the bend 
Of Hudson's bed where the (ireat Carrj'ing Place 
Began, and the batteau its polling pace 
Ceased for the wagon's jolt whose canvas cave 
Was piled with rustic goods and blankets brave 



300 Centennial Celebrations. 

For settler and for savage, or jerked slow 
O'er stony roads, with swinging pail below 
And trotting dog, its four great steeds with stalk 
Stately, and shrill bell jangling in their walk ; 
Pausing at roofs where buyers could be found, 
And stores with shelves of cloths and dangling round 
With bacon, loaves, whips, lanterns, in dim nooks 
Hogsheads and barrels, and with blinking looks 
Ranges of cutlery, and bringing up 
By night, at small, rough, wayside Inns, to sup 
And lodge, then on, repeating day by day 
The life ; o'er these smooth Plains they oft would stray 
Sheeny with flowers, where roads all courses led 
Vocal with frogs from swamps at each side spread 
Or rolled in dells and knolls of pine-trees tanned 
With their brown fringe, and veined with silver sand ; 
Or in some dimpling dingle would they rest 
Playing at cards upon a prone tree's breast 
Pearled with white lichen, rough with glossy spines 
Crimsoned with moss or fringed with fairy pines. 
The striped ground squirrel cantered by their side 
Brush lifted like a gun ; the woodchuck tried 
To leave his den but shrank back as they looked ; 
And the rare black fox from his burrow crooked ; 
The quail gazed at them, and a movement quick 
Betrayed the bell-owl in his covert thick 
Wakened from sleep; the breezes flitting brief 
Would plant wliite stars on every wavering leaf; 
The flying squirrel, bird and brute combined, 
Would shoot askance, until the arbors twined 
Thickened in evening's shades of India ink 
And from the skies the silver stars would wink. 

Or in some gravel-pit where bushes clung, 

And merry music from the insects rung. 

On the warm gravel they their length would lay 

Helmet cast down and musket laid away. 

And think how sweetly they could slumber here 

With naught but crickets cliirping to their ear 

Instead of reveille and quick tattoo 

Or march to time their tread, and naught to view 

But moonlight stepping on her tender feet 

Straying around as if their eye to greet 

Free from the tent's close folds : till glowing red 

On the pit's rim would tell that day had fled. 

Beneath a bridge above some shrunken stream 
Where bent the arch, or stretched the web-like beam, 
On the ridged earth they oft would crouch and hear 
The frog's hoarse bellow echoing on their ear 




I 

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in 
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& 
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Fh 



SciIVYLERVrLLE. 801 

Like a far gun roar; cool the shadows hiy 
With here ami there the gold dart of a I'ay 
From chink and knot-iiole; on the bits of sod 
Stood spears of grass and tufts of golden rod ; 
And, now and then, a robin would look in 
And chirp to see the scarlet colors win 
Gleams from the ilusk; below, the waters dark 
Shone like gilt ebony, or sliot a spark 
Bright as a toad's eye ; cool and sweetly damp 
The sheltered spot imtil they sought the camp. 

Changing the scene, Burgoyne his camp would trace 

Round the Red House at the Great Carrying Place ; 

There when the sun is bright, the sentry sees 

Madame Ricdesel dining under trees. 

As the chasseur beholds her gliding round 

Off flies his bear-skin helmet, to the ground 

His carbine slides; the bronze-browed grenadier 

Lifts his red cap and smiles with honest cheer, 

For the glad vintage of the father land 

Lives in her presence; through its mountains grand 

Winds the loved Rhine ; the forests melt away. 

Cot, wife and children smOe ; all shines one hapjiy day. 

Now like a sun blot in the circling camp 

Her sandal specks the lumbering yager's stamp; 

In the rain-rumbling barn, now, round rough boards 

Sitting, with spades by plumes and scythes by swords; 

Under the loft stuffed full of fragrant hay 

Where the mustachioed weasel prowls for prey; 

Where pronged the pitchfork, the strawcutter showered 

Its glittering dots, and the wheelbarrow cowered 

With the grey grindstone, and the resting plow 

By the tall ladder leading to the mow 

Rustling with insects like a trickling brook; 

And the asli-l)arrel rounded from the nook. , 

Burgoyne, too, often, brings his epaulets 
In the dusk barn when rain the landscape wets; 
His scarlet coat ujion the straw would gleam ; 
His snowy plumes beneath the rafters stream ; 
And when he left it seemed as if the place 
Relapsing dim had lost a gliding grace. 

Still restless, he Fort Miller's walls would seek 
Where at the spreading ford, the rapids wreak 
Their foam on ,slo])ing rocks; their ceaseless tongue 
Soothed his vexed ear, and whin rich film was flung 
By the soft south wind on the mcllinv air. 
His glittering greenduke bait would dimple where 



302 Centennial Celebrations. 

The whirling j^ebble-stones of Bloody Ruu 

Had scooped deep pools; his fowling piece would stun 

Some cedar cavern where the quail had sought 

Refuge ; or ho would rouse his tuneful thought 

To poesy amid the glorious scenes 

Of forest gorges, dingles and ravines; 

Or, with jjleased smile would watch the timid doe 

Hiding her fawn too yoimg to flee, as slow 

He trod some grassy aisle ; or as his hound 

Treed the scared partridge, echo would rebound 

To his loud shout, while the poor brindled thing 

Too faint with fright to sjiread delivering wing 

Would cower among the leaves ; and thus the hours 

On led his steps through mingled thorns and flowers. 

As sunset glows, up Horican's pure tides, 

A battery-corps of Phillips slowly glides 

In large batteaux ; as ripple their fronts along, 

The boatmen wake the echoes with the song 

Of their \\'ild, frontier life ; the mounted brass 

In the low light gleams golden; black the mass 

Of shade from point and curve of bank; the lake 

Reflects the scarlet coats ; the pennons shake 

In the light puffs of air; they pass Burnt Camp 

As the first breeze of sunset winnows damp; 

Then Bosom Bay allures their wandering eyes 

In the rich coloring of the western skies ; 

Sabbath Day Point in streaks of brilliance glows 

And its black picture paints the Lake's repose ; 

By the bold grandeur of famed Rogers Slide 

Shining in varied tinge, they sluggish glide; 

Past Prisoner's Island rich in sunset stains ; 

Juniper Island now their pathway gains ; 

Past green Slim Point; Bluff Point is now before 

Buck Mountain rears its crest along the shore; 

Sugar Loaf Mountain glows in tender red ; 

On Battery Island, softest tints are spread ; 

Over the water breathes the birch's scent 

The mints and pines in balmiest fragrance blent ; 

The golden beauty of the evening lies 

Round like a blessing ; the flotilla plies 

Up past Tongue Mountain where the wood-duck oars 

Her flight of terror, and her duckling shores ; 

The heavy battery-wheels, stout traces, chains. 

Thick massive collars, tough but pliant reins. 

Large saddles studded with big nails of brass. 

And stalwart, stamping steeds, all upward pass. 

Balls are coned round ; great powder-bags and swabs 

Lean in the nooks of trunnions and of knobs. 

With rammers ; men stand, sit, at full length lie ; 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 303 



They shout and whistle, gaze on cartli and sky, 

Wrestle in sport and tisticufl in joke, 

Tlieir limbs tliey daiigk-, and their pipes they smoke, 

Reliearse old war-scenes, fondly hope for new. 

Discuss commanders, pass in swift review 

Tlie late events, and lavigh derisively 

At such rude rustics fancying to lie free. 

Darker and darker grow the spreading shades, 

Till twilight's glamor the wide scene pervades. 

The sparkling isles all round tliem looked confused. 

And the whole scene in lonely silence mused. 

Heaves Shelving Rock in front; they pass it now 

The jeweled Dipper beaming on its brow. 

They mark the lovely tints of evening play 

On the calm surface of Ganouskie Bay; 

And now Dome Island in mid sight appears. 

And toward it each batteau, loud rippling, steers 

Here lies the goal until the morning sheen 

And sooii the camp-tires glitter on the scene. 

Large as a cannon-wheel, the rosy moon 

Rises; the Lake begins its nightly croon, 

Ripple on bank, rustle of circling leaves. 

All the soft sounds that summer silence weaves, 

Some wakeful bird's note, the loon's startling whoop, 

The myriad, dillering cadence in one group 

Filling the ear. Morn dawns in gorgeous tints: 

The tJashing deep the rude flotilla prints; 

Soon Diamond Island's glossy shade is sjiread 

Upon the water's gemmy gold and red ; 

Next, close adjoining, sits Long Island green 

With leafy beauty, rich in dewy sheen ; 

On the batteaux ; Phelp's Bay upon the east, 

Yields to their gazing sight a dazzling feast; 

Along the west, they pass the Rattlesnake 

Lifting its crest above the glittering Lake, 

Where the glad lustre twines its golden wreath 

Upon the trees in the ravine beneath; 

Artillery Cove, with its one cedar isle, 

Sends o'er the sparkling flood its sylvan smile ; 

And now the ramparts of a ruined Fort 

Rise on the shore, and there, they all resort. 

They haul their cannon and they hoist their stores; 

They scale cracked walls and traverse broken floors. 

Planting their loads; Fort George that late wsus mute 

In forest silence, save the wavelet's flute, 

The bobolink's bugle, robin's flageolet. 

And frog's bassoon, now buzzed with rush 

Of busy life; and there, for many days 

llorican viewed the scarlet banner blaze; 

Till the rough road, that linked Fort Edward, saw 



304 Centenkial Celebrations. 

Thither the train its jolting progress draw. 
Along the base of wild French Moimtain, slow 
They plunge and crunch; its summit shines aglow 
With sheen, but shaded winds the road ; beyond 
They cross the stream of neighboring Long Pond ; 
Still on they jolt; they pass the old stockade 
Of the French War ; at night they bivouac made 
Within Fort Amherst, at the Half- Way Brook. 
And when morn glowed, again their pathway took 
Along the forests chirping either side 
Until they hailed the Fort at eventide. 

Meanwhile the tidings of Oriskany 

And Bennington careered ; and glad and free 

Hope spread white pinions ; throngs to Schuyler pour 

Swelling his ranks, all abject terror o'er. 

Poor Jennie's mournful doom had roused an ire 

Wrapping the region with consuming fire. 

The boy strode downward in his rustic sleeves, 

His coarse frock fragrant with the wheaten sheaves ; 

The brassy buttoned, blue, artillery coat 

Trod by the hunting-shirt from wilds remote; 

The scythe, sword-handled, met the king's arm red 

In rust ; the plumed cap touched the shaggy head ; 

Hid away hamlets, far away farms sent out 

Their patriot throngs ; the hunter's startling shout 

No longer checked the flying deer; at dusk. 

The fireflies saw the trap whose snaring musk 

Allured the mink, snap on its gasping prey 

With no rough hand to bear the fur away; 

Unseen by prying eyes the otter slid 

Down the smooth bank and in the streamlet hid; 

From glossy hamlets and from forests wide, 

From lakes like oceans, and from river-tide. 

From streaks of fresh-blazed trees where sable-lines 

Ran leagues, from watery dungeon-nooks where shines 

The Indian Plume's rich torch; where slender reeds 

Point by the cabin, bright in pickerel-weeds. 

From the green cross road soft with school-house hum, 

From tumbling milldams, and from dingles dumb 

Save the whistling bird ; from all points, came 

High patriot hearts, shrines bright in freedom's flame, 

Crowding the camp whei-e Schuyler, lingering lay. 

His sti'ength increasing each succeeding day. 

As when the spring tide brings the roaring rains 

And the swollen Mohawk from its winter chains 

Dashes in fury down the broad Cohocs 

And wakes the forests from their calm repose, 

So came the living torrents to the scene 

Where Freedom's banner shone in beckoning sheen. 



SCIIUYLEUVILLE. 3U5 

Back to Fort Stanwix. As Time nnwRi-d stepped, 
Closer St. Leger's threatening purallels crept. 
In tlie near meadow at the Scal|<ing Tree, 
The patriot saw tlie red-skin in his glee 
Wield the keen knife in token of the honr 
When his hot head would feel its horrid power. 
Oft did he see, too, in the evening glow 
St. Leger's swarthy face and huge chapeau 
By the wild, painted Brant, or Johnson blufi, 
As he surveyed the Fort that in its rough 
Half finished form still showed defiant teeth 
At the thronged foe its sylvan walls beneath. 

At last a night of scowling tempest saw 

Willett and Stockwell from the fortress draw 

Their snaky lengths through slumbering foes ; they grope 

Through the black wilds until their blinding scope 

Is kindled by the sun ; then on they steer. 

The brook and blackberry their only cheer. 

Till down the valley on their flying steeds 

They Schuyler seek ; their summons warm he heeds ; 

And Arnold tracks Fort Dayton's valley trail 

And sends on Hon Yost with his cunning tale. 

Along the Port's rough road tliat led to where 

Fort Stanwi.x stood, a man with slouching air 

And wandering glance moved swift on ponderous feet; 

The noontide sunbeams in his pathway beat 

A thread-like trail that through the forest wound 

And scarce mid thickets faint existence found. 

Now the trail vanished in some windfall vast; 

And now he vaulted o'er the pine tree cast 

By the tornado, rearing frequent bulk ; 

Now waded some slow stream with snaky skulk 

Oozing through rotten mould till one loose bog 

Wallowed about ; his large splay foot would clog, 

And stumble o'er the blind and sketchy trail 

Touching along; 'twa,s Hon Yost with liis tale 

Apt to his tongue to tell the savage foe 

Of Arnold striking his o'erwhelmiug blow. 

About the Scalping Tree, the rod skins form 
In solemn covuicil ; the debate is warm — 
After wise Ilah-wcn-ne-yo's aid was sought — 
Whether to leave atonee the war-|i:ith fi aught 
With such dire evil as Oriskany, 
Or follow still the King, their Father ; free 
Flows their fierce, guttural talk; their minds in doubt 
Waver; a figure at a warning shout 
Bursts on their rows; 'tis linn Yost I "red men fly! 
39 



306 Centennial Celebrations. 

The white man comes to slaj' ! his hosts are nigli 

Thick as the leaves! " he sliouts; they start, recoil; 

The council breaks ; they flee in wild turmoil, 

In vain St. Leger hurls his wrath, and storms 

The furious Johnson ; quick retreating forms 

Pill all the portage toward Wood Creek ; and soon 

The golden quiet of the afternoon 

Steeps the wide landscape ; field and stream and tree 

Restored once more to soft tranquillity. 

All round the sylvan Fort as sunset shone 
Settled the forest stillness, and alone. 
Instead of wild, fierce prowling forms, it sees 
The steadfast columns of the peaceful trees: 
Instead of flitting red-coats gleaming rich 
In the gold rays from battery wall and niche 
Of breastwork, it beholds the Sweep of leaves 
Gorgeous in all the pomp that sun-down weaves. 
Left even the bombardier in slumber cast. 
And the hung kettles for the eve's repast. 
The low light bathes the empty meadows spread 
Along the Mohawk, trampled with the tread 
So late of foes ; as silver twilight falls, 
And umber thickens on the forest walls 
The landscape hears, instead of sounds that fright, 
The murmured music of the quiet night. 

As here scenes change, in Schuyler's island-camp 

As the famed Sprouts, Night hangs her diamond lamp, 

Day his nectarian dome ; it sees the fall 

Of dark Cohoes ; watches the drowsy crawl 

Of the batteau up Mohawk's branching blue, 

The noiseless periagua the canoe 

With paddle-foot, for De-o-wain-sta's belt 

Where the sweet valley-river's sources melt 

In spongy mosses and in bubbly ooze. 

Until all trace the lurking trickles lose. 

Upon the rocky isle, like wintry drifts 
Tents ridge the scene ; a zigzag breastwork lifts 
Now, the flat shore ; a loop-holed curtain, now. 
Joins bastions ; a bomb-battery rears its brow 
Betwixt low rocks; embrasures skirt the scene; 
War darkening frowns in natures smiling green. 
Here Gates, the reins of battle's crouching steeds 
Seizing from Schuyler's guiding grasp, succeeds 
To that wise hero's post within the car 
Whose wheels still wait on fortune's fickle star. 

Fronting, in whirling, flashing, plunging shocks, 
Cohoes comes dashing down its bridling rocks ; — 



SCIII-YLKKVILLE. 307 

Comes like a wnnini- wliooping on his path, 
His liatchet glittering in his taineloss wrath. 
Thence the broad Moliawii, dark in eddying flow, 
Steals to the Hudson's broader wave below, 
lu the calm, wrinkling flood, the patriot-cam|) 
Stands on its island, one of four that cramp 
The waters to the Sprouts that, smiling, bring 
Their crystal jewels to the River-King. 

Now their adieu, the days of Summer bid, 

And cool September brings her catydid. 

Gates, roused to action, takes his upward way 

To meet Burgoyne who, waked from his delay. 

Is marching downward, with his earthward ear 

Keen sharpened, Clinton's hoped for tread to hear. 

The forests glint with patriots steel; the air 

Echoes and glitters with the stamp and glare 

Of foot and weapon ; dead leaves tiu-n to mire 

At trampling feet ; the air, one sounding lyre 

Of fife and drum ; the old oak's leafy speech 

Says " on " not " back; " the compass of the beech 

By its moss-hands points north ; the hemlock thinned 

AVith austral blasts saj's "up; " the maple skinned 

By the lodged fir, creaks " come ; " and glad the ranks 

Obedient track the Hudson's upward banks. 

His fife ■n'ithin his hand, the fifer-lad 

Tramped on; the baggage-driver whirled his gad; 

The cannonier, beside his gleaming gun. 

His crunching, pounding, plunging path waj' won; 

Vaulting the prostrate log, the snare-loosed drum 

Jarred by the bound, gave out a sullen hum ; 

The king's arm clanked upon the buckle ; rang 

The sword against the rock ; with bell-like clang 

The brass-plate of some plumed cap struck a branch 

Drooped low ; the steel-tipped flagstaff, flashing launch 

Made to the arch the weeping elm o'erhung. 

While in some gust the dangling bugle sung. 

The rifleman's red hunting shirt jnelds fringe 

To the thorn's clutch : the mould's black, smirchings tinge 

Laced leggins; farm-boys in their butternut, 

Find how the sedges like keen knives can cut; 

And soaked boots rumble as they toiling tread 

The deep morass with yielding mosses spread. 

They trace the deer ])ath roimd the swamp and seize 

The meaning of the blaze-haeks on the trees 

Traced by the trapper for his figure four. 

Or dead-fall with its death-pole slanting o'er 

Couched in the bush ; even guided by the scent 

Of the pierced bait for its furred prey, they went. 



308 Centennial Celebrations. 

But fronting heights now meet the wandering eye 

Where river flats in meadowy smootliness lie 

In crescent green ; the army halts, and day 

By day, the spot assumes war's stern array. 

Breastworks crown knolls ; and point the bristling spears 

Of sharp abattis ; now, a wall careers 

Over some marsh ; and an embrasure, now, 

Runs through a panther-lair ; the hillock's brow 

Bears the strong battery ; while in ranks of suow 

The tents their many lanes and alleys show. 

Thy skUl, oh ! noble Kosciusko ! wakes 

These warlike looks ! thy peerless genius breaks 

Over this scene in wily webs that sent 

Freedom's brave son, to strife ; so subtly blent. 

So closely hidden, ^vith such caution traced 

That the foe knew not where they lurked, till placed 

In contact by surrender, and thus made 

To fight with a veiled enemy arrayed 

In battle order; gladly History keeps 

Enshrined thy name, wliile proud her bosom leaps 

O'er thy bright fate, to fall in conflict grand 

Oh! hero, patriot, for thy fatherland. 

Flashes of steel and frequent spots of red 
Through the dense foliage o'er the landscape spread 
Tell of the foe ; His downward step is stayed, 
And here, at last, he draws his battle-blade. 

As two grim thunder clouds approaching nigh, 
Threatning and watchful, climb the shrinking sky; 
Nearer and nearer, not a stir or breath ; 
Nearer and nearer, silent all as death 
Until together the black masses dash, 
"When dart keen lightnings, fearful thunders crash ; 
So came and closed the hosts, until with fright 
Shuddered the scene in battle's fiercest might. 

Upon thy heiglits, oh! Bemus! let us stand 
And view the landscape beautiful and grand. 
North-west, in hue that robes the heather-bell, 
The velvet tops of Horican upswell. 
Downy in distance, sheeny in the sun, 
East, domed in blue, the height of Bennington, 
Where likewise those grand peaks, in glimmerings blent 
Show the Green Mountains, Freedom's battlement. 
That rounded summit, too, in purple drest 
Proclaims where Willard's Mountain rears its crest. 
South, the soft range that gray the horizon breaks 
Tells where its way the Hudson Valley takes ; 



S(.iirvi,i;i;\ ii.i.i';. 309 

While west, the hills of Saratoga belt 
The raptured eyesight, and in azure melt. 

Oh! War, thou frightful fiend, from thy red deep 

Why dost thou spring, dread carnival to keep! 

Hast thou not spoiled this earth enough, that thou 

Must still unveil the terrors of thy brow? 

Wreathed roses scent the summer air to-day, 

To-morrow stoops the raven to his prey; 

At morn, the sun on life sheds gladdening boon, 

At night, looks down ou death, the sorrowing moon. 

Nature abhors thee : on the battle-field 

She hastes her healing, eager aid to yield. 

On bony fragments twines the peaceful flower; 

O'er sword and musket bends the grassy bower; 

Where wheeled platoons and deadly volleys rolled. 

The kinebell chimes, the plowshare curls the mould ; 

In the burst bomb-shell rounds the robin's nest; 

Where bullets struck, the fern waves feathery crest; 

But still red Battle wields his scorpion scourge 

And their fierce, maddened flight his fearful comsers ui-ge. 

And yet, thy presence casts one smiling ray 
When Patriot Valor piles thy slaughtering way. 
In fire divine, thy altar stands arrayed 
When fatherland calls man to draw his blade. 
Fragrant breathe War's fierce gory blossoms then; 
A sacred light bathes mountain, field and glen ; 
And memory bends a mourner o'er the grave 
Where man has died his native soil to save. 

And thus, oh Bemus, on thy leafy heights 
Did Freedom strive to guard her heavenly rights ! 
Her voice the torrent and her arm the pine 
Dashing and swinging and man's heart her shrine. 

And so on that September morn, the hosts 

Met in fierce grapple ; Poesy that boasts 

Celestial birth! not thine the laurel torn 

From ludeous Battle, but the bay leaf born 

From lovely Peace; thy song is not the clank 

Sounding, rebounding from the serried rank; 

Thy glance resides not in the cannon's flash ; 

Thou shudderest at the conflict's thimderous crash; 

Haste to thy sylvan haunt, to thy green home! 

Let not thy fairy, flowery sandal roam 

To scenes of war ! there, shines heaven's delicate blue ; 

The robin's warble greets th(! simset dew ; 

The stream's soft silver glides in sunny dells; 

Thy soul-bright eye on naught but beauty dwells; 

Yet, though thou shrinkest, patriot voices call; 



310 Centennial Celebrations. 

The trumpet's clangors must not all appal! 

Loved country beckons thee thy haunt to leave 

For scenes that fire the spirit while they grieve. 

Come then on tiptoe, glowing, yet aghast, 

Thy wild locks streaming on the battle-blast. 

Thy form recoiling even while pressing on, 

Thy soft eye glittering, though thy cheek be wan ; 

Strip the gold strings of music from thy lyre. 

And streak its graceful frame with iron wire 

Flinging fierce flashes like the musket's own ; 

Ringing stern crashes like the cannon's tone ; 

Sing how brave Arnold dared death's fiercest frown. 

And Morgan's rifle won a new renown ; 

flow Poor and Scammel dipped their swords in red ; 

CUley and Learned marked their path with dread; 

How Phillips thundered, Ackland faced the foe 

Riedesel sallied, Praser showered his blow ; 

Ranks withered, sunk platoons; on Havoc ploughed; 

Live streaks of fire shot arrowy through the cloud ; 

The bayonet glittered, gleamed the frequent sword ; 

The musket rattled and the cannon roared; 

The Heights like Sinai spoke with glare and peal, 

Battle the Moses and the tablets steel ; 

And long as Fame her pen of power shall hold, 

Thy earth, Oh Bemus ! shall be changed to gold ! 

Piled to a pyramid, Time's sunset beam, 

In living lustre, there, shall lingering stream ; 

Thy name be sculptured in eternal rock 

And told among the beats of Time's unceasing clock. 

The night sinks down, but sparkles red betray 

Where tireless arms still carry on the fray. 

Cap-plate and match-box in the battle-flame * 

The foes respective, breast to breast, proclaim, 

Till Carnage ceases from his crimson tread, 

And the drear scene but holds the dj'ing and the dead. 

The Patriot Chieftain, wakeful, dreads the light. 

Lest the fierce Lion should renew the fight. 

The sable grains where lurk death's lightnings, naught; 

Ah ! with what danger Freedom's life is fraught ! 

Burgoync!, too, wakeful, stoops once more his ear; 
Ah ! loitering Howe ! thy succor ! is it near ! 
On torturing waves his struggling heart is tost; 
A conflict like the last, and all is lost. 
The raorniing dawns; the Lion from the scene 
Hath sought his lair within the walled ravine 
And height embattled ; sylvan Freeman's farm — 
That late resounded with wild war's alarm ; 
Where dashed the battle in its swhiging flow, 



8c'iuvlekvillj:. 311 

Like grappling billows rolling to ami fro ; 

Or a majestic piMiiluluin is urged : 

Where the red ranks and where the patriot .surged; 

Where gallant Jones, his blue-red coat aglow 

With redder hues, hurled thunders on the foe. 

And died at last beside his cannon hot 

With their live lightnings; — ah that sylvan spot 

How dire the scenes it knew — sliines fresh and bright, 

With nature smiling in the morn's delight. 

Unscared. the meadow-lark soars warbling up 

As the dew domes the aster's starry cup ; 

The robin pipes his clarionet and blinks 

At the round button like an eye that winks 

On the prone red-coat ; while the squu-rel eyes 

The prostrate garb of home-spun, its dull dyes 

Like the brown store he gathered for his cave ; 

From his leaf hammock with his sable glaive 

To pierce the flower, tlie bee drones on his way 

His silver bag-pipe misty with its play ; 

All speak of peace, the living and the dead; 

And thus the hours speed on with golden tread. 

Days roll along; the patriot picket sees 

The red platoons rich glimpsing through the trees. 

The grenadier surveys the rustic foe 

Pitching the quoit, or drilling to and fro 

The new recruits ; the nightly watch-fires glance 

Upon the Indian's circling, stamping dance 

To the bowl-drum's dull beat; the hut of boughs 

Wreathed by the pati-iot farm-boy from where browse 

The cattle in the barn-yard, views him fit 

The handle of the hoe within a bit 

Of sharpened steel, and lo ! a spear to pierce 

The cannonicr when up he gallops fierce 

To hurl his bolts; the drummer-boy that wore 

His drum until its skin the bullet tore 

Turns it into a cage to prison there 

The captiu-ed squirrel ; near, with patient care 

Some rustic makes the scythe into a sword, 

Percliance to strike, when battle's torrents poured. 

The grand Burgoyne himself, as hand to hand 

Sickle to bayonet, pitchfork warding brand, 

Whirls the blind chaos; arms that wield the flail, 

Heap up the cider-press and build the rail 

Strike deep; and thus September goes, her breath 

Dimming the greenery, like day's twilight death 

Filming the landscape, and October comes. 

The pine sighs Summer's dirge; the hemlock hums 

Its wintry proi)heey; Burgoyne perceives 

The hectic crimson on the maple leaves 



312 Centennial Celebrations. 

And thinks how like liis hopes tlieir green was sign 

And now when evil fortune makes decline 

The red announces doom ; then how the blue 

Unchanging cedar wore the fadeless hue 

Of smiling Freedom's hopes ; the birch's gold 

His vanishing glory as a warrior told ; 

The oak's rich purple, of the gore that stained 

His path, and, oh despair ! what, what, remained ! 

At length he reared once more his wavering front 

To blindly dare the battle's tickle brunt. 

Again he dashes from his camp as breaks 

A long stayed cataract; Slaughter fiercely shakes 

Anew his pinions. Poesy upsprings 

From the green dingle where the sunshine flings 

A gold black chequer, and in quiet she 

Couched in the blossom swung within the tree 

With bee and bird songs in her shell-like ears 

Building her fairy thoughts ; and, shuddering, hears 

Again the shout of battle ; slow her tread 

Toward the tierce scene where Carnage reigns in dread 

From where the dew condensed its sparkling swell 

In silver cupolas along the dell. 

Her soft eyes start, her golden hair again 

Streams like a sunlit torrent; jars the strain 

Her pearly lyre ; black scowls the sulphury cloud 

Red with the streaks of death ; War shouts aloud 

In fiendish glee ; foes grapple; ranks melt; earth 

Shakes with the cannon-thunder; this thy mirth. 

Accursed Demon ! oh ye beauteous trees, 

That rang so sweetly to the minstrel breeze ! 

How your soft bark — the tricksy beetle's home 

And all the murmurous wings whose twilight roam 

Turns air to music — by fierce, cruel balls 

Is tortured ! as tliey strike, what glittering falls 

Of tiny shapes ! what sliowers of rainbow leaves ! 

But vain the sorrow ! Battle, ceaseless, weaves 

His awful web ! "on patriots ! charge once more ! " 

" Back, rebels ! " reeks with red the forest floor ! 

Five times a British gun is won and lost 

By Britain and by Freedom, and is tost 

By the war's wave to Freedom's hand at length ; — 

Bold Cilley mounts and dedicates its strength 

To Freedom's cause, and hurls its thunders loud 

With red-coat charges on the red-coat crowd. 

Oh gorgeous Banner, rent but waving still ! 
Oh Flag of ages ! with what warrior will 
Thy folds have shadowed realms ! no craven arm 
Hath ever borne thee ! fortune's smiling charm 



ScilUYLEKVlLLK. 313 

Until mafic tliee bright ! all, Lion Flag what now 

Darkens thy radiance ! Freedom's glorious brow 

Smites with the splendor born of lightning spray 

Flashed by fierce torrents, the tornado's way 

Through levelled wilds, of l)illows hurling masts 

Like straws beneatli theui, born of tameless blasts 

Whirling round chainless crags, of boundless skies 

Of endless woods, where freest mountains rise; 

Oh trophied Banner, doth thy Lion droop 

Yea shiver and shrink, yea, shiver and shrink and stoop 

Down toward the dust ! on Flag ! one struggle more ! 

Think of thy glories ! let the blood outpour ! 

Strike, warriors strike ! ah, Flag of high emprise ! 

Bold Ackland falls ! low, noble Fraser lies ! 

In vain, alas in vain, thy sons brave death ! 

Faint is the strength and wailing is the breath 

Around thee now ! but, facing still the foe. 

Thy tread is faltering, waxing weak thy blow ! 

Facing the foe, not onward points thy track ! 

Facing the foe, but reeling, reeling back ! 

The Flag of Freedom follows! bright, with sun, 

Borne by TenBroeck, Poor, Glover, Livingston ; 

Borne by brave Nixon, Learned, scorning dread ; 

Fierce Arnold leading, Morgan in his tread ; 

In vain Burgoyne plants firm his step to stay. 

Ragged with balls! in vain, in vain, away 

The chief is swept, whose watch-word was the boast 

" Britons retreat not," swept now by the host 

He scorned ; our Banner, brightening as it goes, 

Careers o'er piles of dead, o'er struggling foes. 

Shout ! Freedom, shout ! hurrah I on, on its path I 

On over breastwork, sharp abattis! wrath 

Glares from the Lion's eye! shout. Freedom, shout! 

On, Banner, on ! the Lion turns in rout. 

The boasting Lion ! shout! hurrah! he flees! 

Brave Breyman dies ! triumphant Freedom sees 

The Lion flying from the field ! hurrah I 

No grander sight, grand freedom ever saw ! 

Waving her flag, she plants it on its throne, 

Shout! rend the skies! hurrah! shout! victory is her own ! 

Again the morning, but no Lion's glare 

Ueddens the field ; in sullen, dark despair 

He crouches in his den upon the height; 

While Freedom spends the day in songful, wild delight. 

The wrathful sunset lights a sorrowing scene 
In wliich a warrior train with mournful mien 
Consigns the gallant Fraser to his rest 
Within the '■ Great Redoubt," upon the crest 
40 



314 Centennial Celebrations. 

Of that mailed hill where stands Burgoyne to pay 
Friendship's last tribute to the much-loved clay. 
Hiss the fierce, patriot caunon-balls around 
The grieving grouj), as rise in sacred sound 
The funeral words ; but changed at length to tolls 
Of minute-guns whose solemn homage roUs 
Over the twilight landscape darkening grave 
In reverence, likewise, for the noble brave. 

As the rain blinds the night, on Hudson's ilow 

A boat is tossing ; valiant in her woe. 

The tender Ackland seeks her wounded lord 

Within the patriot-camp ; the wild blast roared 

O'er the black waves ; though bitter rain-sheets chilled. 

Feelings of heaven that throbbing bosom filled, 

And soon her husband's suffering couch she gained. 

Whose pangs she soothed and languor she sustained. 

As the rain streams, Burgoyne his sullen tread 
Turns to the North ; no hope remains ; his head 
Bows low ! and yet — if Horican's free wave 
Receives his conquered host, retreat might save 
Surrender — on ! the night weeps bitter tears. 
But on ! this one sole hope, though glimmeriug, cheers 
His fainting spirit ! on ! the Lion stoops 
In the black air, but on ! in straggling groups 
His tired and hungry ranks grope slow along; 
Oh ! how unlike the gay and gladdening song 
Of their advance ! " Britons retreat not! " now 
Shame clogs the step, dejection loads the brow ; 
But on ! the morning dawns ! still on ! the height 
. Of Saratoga hails the pallid light 

Of closing eve, and here, at last, the weighed 
And weary step of poor Burgoyne is stayed. 

Gates follows after ; from the jeweled isles 

Of Horican ; the stately rocky piles 

Of blue Luzerne, where the majestic crags 

Of Potash Kettle change the clouds to flags; 

Wlrere the Green Mountain blasts to thunders call 

In stately challenge ; foams the waterfall 

Of the Great Spirit; where expands the plain 

Of the rich "Healing Waters! " where in vain 

Centuries gnaw the buckler on the breast 

Of Wallface, and Tahawus scowls with crest 

Of scorn upon his vassal peaks ; in throngs 

The patriots sally, fiery with their wrongs 

And hopeful of their rights, to Freedom's side 

Now marching forward with victorious stride. 



Sc'lIUVLEKVILLK. 315 

Shrinking from ceaseless showers of pntriot l)nlls, 

Madame liiedesel, in those cellar walls 

Hallowed by her grand heart, makes bright the gloom 

With fond devotion : at her touch, the bloom 

Of roses glows from ashes; suffering's l)ed 

Hears the sweet music of her gentle tread ; 

She cools hot fever's brow, and with her smiles 

The weary hours of tossing pain beguiles. 

Thy hoiTors, War, are tinged with transient glow 

By souls like her's, one joy to myriad woe ! 

Within a ball-swept tent Burgoyne sits now 
In counsel with despair upon his brow. 
Curtains of scowling blackness fold him round ; 
Closed is the net, and he is firmly bound. 
Turns he toward Horicau? the foe is there! 
East, Fellows' cannon-lightnings scorch the air; 
West, the live forest but his coming waits; 
And in his rear the frowning front of Gates. 

At last wakes dallying Howe, and Hudson reels 

Under the upward rush of British keels. 

Many a brown hamlet on the river shore 

At British broadsides, finds its quiet o'er; 

And many a stately manor house withdrawn 

In its old groves, upon its shrubbery lawn. 

Feels the hot cannon-ball; — where roll the heights 

Of the wild Iliglilands, and in stately sights ' 

Nature rejoices, curving, now the Stream 

To seeming lakes, then narrowing till its gleam 

Is lost in blackness from the swelling breasts, 

At either hand, of the encroaching crests, — 

Standing like islands in an emerald .sea, 

Frown stern. Forts Clinton and Montgomery. 

In vain they hurled, their thunders, still in vain 

Reliance placed they on the massive chain 

Linking the shores; the struggling Forts were swept, 

The chain was snapjied, and up the vessels kept 

Their devastating way; — still on, still on ! 

Their broadsides roaring while their torches shone, 

Round many a dwelling slumbering in its trees. 

Wakening to fires wild streaming on the breeze 

At midnight's helpless hour; at length in flames 

Grassy Esop\is sees its rustic frames. 

But northern tidings tell that hope is vain. 

And Vaughan and Wallace seek Manhattan's spires again. 

On Saratoga's height, Song's weary wing 
Now folds a space, her glances ri)\nid to fling. 
From "Gravel Ilill" gleams down upon her view 



316 Cejsitenisiial Celebrations. 

Hudson's bright flood ; that fragment of soft blue 
Tells the Green Mountains, and it smiles upon 
The scene of glad and glorious Bennington ; 
Upon the river bank rise dome-like hills ; 
Downward a rich and varying landscape fills 
The gladdened eye ; where sunset flres the skies, 
The dreamy peaks of Saratoga rise. 
Ilorican's mountains, like the purple down 
Of the ripe plum, the North horizon crown ; 
Up, Battenkill yields Hudson's breast her charms 
Clasping a fairy daughter in her arms; 
South, the sweet Fish Kill Unks, too, like a bride 
Her sparkling beauty with his lordly tide ; 
Outspreads the space of erst Port Hardy, nigh ; 
And here Song fastens her exultant eye. 

A pearly, creamy Indian summer day ! 
Glorious the scenes October's tints display. 
Golden the birch, in red the maple glows. 
Orange the beech, the oak its purple shows, 
While bits of rainbow, every jewel's hue 
Blossom and bird, and shell, seem draining through 
Upon the woodland mould, so rich and bright 
Thicket and herbage flash upon the sight. 

On tlie Fort Hardy Green, this dainty day. 

The conquered hosts of England marched, to lay 

Then' weapons down ; the hour has struck, and now 

With heavy footsteps and with sullen brow, 

They come, but with no patriot eye to see. 

For nobly, Gates in generous sympathy 

Has banished all within their tents; they come. 

Yet with no banner spread, no beating drum. 

Tramp, tramp, they come ! tramp, tramping, rank on rank, 

Tramp, tramp, they come! tramp, tramping; hark, that clank. 

Those piling arms ! clank, clank ! that tolling knell 

To bowed Burgoyne ! what bitter, bitter swell 

Of his proud heart ! ah, sad Burgoyne ! what death 

To thy high hopes, all vanished like a breath ; 

The second scene ! stretched down the rustic road 

On two long patriot lines the sunlight glowed. 

Each musket .shouldered, every flag unwreathed. 

Each cannon pointed, every sword unsheathed, 

A picture grand of flags and swords and guns, 

There stand the States in persons of their sons. 

Virginia's Morgan proudly thei-e ; erect 

New York's brave Livingston ; in gladness decked, 

Learned of Massachusetts; Valiant Poor 

Of grand New Hampshire ; oh, ye brave! secure 

In this your triumph ! well miglit ye rejoice ! 



SciirYi.KiniLi.E. 317 

Do ye not hear within youi- licarts tlio voice 
The tninipet voice of Freedom? hail all hail, 
Ye heroes! for your courage did iiot fail 
In trial I but ye nobly strove and now 
The star of victory beams on every brow. 

They come, the conquered hosts! the grenadier, 

Whose veteran heart has never known a fear; 

Bare his laced shoulder, bare of musket, worn 

To polish witli his weight ; the Hessian, torn 

From his loved hamlet by the Rhine, to fight 

Uncaring in another's cause whose right 

He knew not; mingling in his train, the bear 

The graceful deer, the furred raccoon, his care 

Has tamed; and cowering in the midst, oh sight 

Of woe, ah saddening sight, that Flag of might 

That Lion Banner which had, conquering, climbed 

Abraham's proud Heights! and with its folds sublimed 

By Wolf's grand death, had felt the dying sighs 

Of brave iloutcalm — while streaming in the skies 

Blazoned in triumphs, bright in victory's burst 

The Stars and Stripes, unfurled now for the first — 

(Ah, glorious flag the symbol of the Free 

What heart so cold that does not warm to thee ! 

Born in the throes of War, on laud and sea 

What heart so high that does not sink to thee! 

Crimson with patiiot blood, what caitiff knee 

In Freedom's realm that does not bend to thee ! ) 

Waved, proudly, grandly, gliriously waved 

Above the Lion, deeply now engra\'ed 

By its fii-st victory, with all hearts all round 

Thrilled in the blithe and rapid-tripping sound 

Of our loved air whose measure to our tongue 

Will cling while think tlie old and act the young. 

As passed the conquered troops, from out the tent 
Of Gates whose hospitable folds had bent 
O'er the two chiefs at meat, Burgoyne, in pride 
Of gold and scarlet, plumage streaming wide, 
And Gates, in jjlain, blue garb, appeared, surveyed 
The moving scene ; the first theji bared his blade 
And, bowing, gave it to the other's hand 
Who swift returned it with a gesture bland. 

Off march the conquered hosts ; the distant hills 
Hide them ; again the wide encampment fills 
With patriot troops ; sweet quiet reigns once more ; 
And Saratoga's last, grand, glorious scene is o'er. 
Up rose our sun from tliis great battle's height; 
Swift flew the clouds and all the sky was bright. 



318 Centennial Celebrations. 

Up soared our Eagle, onward she careered ; 

Her wing cast radiance and her presence cheered. 

Wide flew o>ir Eagle; France unsheathed her sword 

And sought our side; and Spain and Holland poured 

Their smiles upon us; ^ide our Eagle flew! 

Cowpens, Kings Mountain, saw glad Victory strew 

Her flowers beneath their tread ; till Yorktown wreathed 

Our land with laurel ; War his falchion sheathed ; 

Aud Glory smiling on her Washington 

Led PKEEDOM to her Tlirone ; omi heritage was won. 

Hail, noblest Washington ! thy soul sublime 

Towers with the loftiest from the earliest time 

Great Alexander trampled on a world. 

Yet to the cup, inglorious banner furled; 

Majestic Caesar with the earth beneath 

Sought but to hide his baldness with his wreath ; 

Bacon, whose thoughts were stars, his mind a sky, 

His rich, bright ermine stained with venal dye; 

Marlborough, grand Achilles of the sword ! 

Lived the mean slave to gold that he adored ; 

Napoleon, pulse of prostrate Europe's heart. 

Shook with weak fear at Fortune's threatening dart; 

Alone, blent Washington all hues to white 

Harmonious radiance of transparent light ; 

Stern, and yet meek, no change of fate disturbed ; 

His a swift courage by slow caution curbed ; 

In danger calm, ambitious but in good ; 

In trial strong, temptations all withstood; 

In darkness, breaking out a cheering sun ; 

No trouble bowed him and no pleasure won ; 

Fixed in resolve, yet bending patient ear ; 

In action prompt, in deep disdain of fear ; 

He drew his sword when country asked his aid, 

And when need passed, serene retm-ned the blade 

Hiding the wreaths the grateful nation twined 

Where green Mount Vernon all his joys enshrined. 

A rocky column he, shaft, brow and base. 

Of flowery sculj^ture, and Corinthian grace ; 

A stalwart oak, with smiling tendrils wreathed ; 

A pointed spear, in loving roses sheathed ; 

A mountain, towering in its state aloft, 

Builded of granite, but with verdure soft ; 

Holding alike the blossom and the pine, 

The storm cloud's shadow and the noontide's shine; 

Now, the bird warbling in the dell, and now. 

The eagle pealing from the craggy brow ; 

Hail, patriot Chief, all hail ! Historic Fame 

In purest gold, hath traced thy glorious name ! 

Earth has Niagara, the sky its sun, 

And proud mankind its only Washington. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 319 

Hail, Saratoga, hail 1 tlie whole broad land 

Should peal thy triumph in one i)a;an grand 

Nature yields homage ; each recurring year 

Honoring thy mighty deeds which rendered clear 

The truth our nation should at last be free, 

October shows its leafy blazonry. 

For in our clime alone those gorgeous dyes 

Vie with the splendor of its sunset skies. 

All hail ! may thy proud glories heavenward burn 

Till to a cinder Time the sun shall turn. 

And now our Banner I oft its hues it changed ; 

Through many varjing shapes its aspect ranged ; 

The elm of Massachusetts and the oak 

Of Carolina into being woke 

The Tree of Liberty : (liow strangely shows 

This patriot union of such after foes !) 

Till a new Constellation starred its blue 

And red and white their deep, striped colors drew; 

Blue, red and white, like tints that quiver and reel 

Over the velvet rich of red hot steel. 

Wide streamed that Banner ! as its folds flashed free 

Auroral splendors flashed in sympathy ; 

Until the patriot saw the earthborn dyes 

Reflected in the Standard of the skies. 

Oh, while those splendors beam upon the sight 

May that broad Banner glow in living light! 

Oh, may its trophies wave in pomp sublime 

Till melts the midnight of departing Time. 

Loudly may laurelled Saratoga claim 

A granite tribute to her splendid fame ! • 

In the grand cliariot which her war-steeds drew 

She first placed Freedom, pointing to her view 

The glorious goal. Shall pagan Egypt bid 

The heavens be cloven with her pyramid? 

Shall Greece shrine Phidias in her Parthenon 

To live till fade the stars and dies the sun? 

Rome with her mighty CoHseum whelm 

The earth with awe, a peerless wondrous realm? 

And our free nation meanly .shrink to write 

With lasting finger in the whole world's sight 

Grand Saratoga's glory? sound aloud. 

Song thy wide trumpet', let the heavens be bowed 

With Love of Country's wrathful tlnmders, till 

A reverent people, with united will 

Shall bid the Jlonument in sculptured art 

Rise, Freedom's visible form, our land's embodied heart. 



320 Centennial Celebrations. 

In introducing tlie next speaker to the audience, Judge Lester said : 
Fellow Citizens : I take pleasure in informing you that there is on the plat- 
form witli me the son of a soldier who fought at Bemus Heights one hundred 
years ago. (Cheers.) But that is not his only title to our esteem. He has served 
his own State with distinction in the United States senate, and has been vice- 
president of these United States. I have the honor to introduce to you Senator 
Foster from Connecticut. 

Ex-Senator Fostek then stepping to the front of the platform spoke 
as follows : 

ADDEESS OF HON. L. F. S. FOSTER 

Will you pardon me, fellow citizens, if I say that I am quite in sjinpathy with 
the whole of the vast crowd which surrounds this stand? The thought that is 
uppermost in all your minds at this moment I am sure is, that he must be a bold 
man, bold even to rashness, who should dare at this horn- of this day to stand 
before you with the design of making a speech. The eloquent words of two 
most distinguished citizens of the Empire State are yet ringing in your ears. 
They have discussed the great event which we are assembled to commemorate and 
perpetuate, in such a manner as to leave nothing to be added; at least I have not 
the courage to attempt it, and I trust I have no cowardly blood in my veins, for 
my father stood on this field among the victors, one hundred years ago to-day. 
In the battle which preceded the surrender, he bore an active part, and I think I 
am warranted in saying that he performed his duty faithfully and well. My 
mother had two brothers here. My State had two regiments here, and several 
troops of Light Horse. So I don't feel myself a stranger or intruder. Your 
worthy ex-Governor has com-teously said, that though this celebration was in the 
State of New York, for a victory won on the soil of New York, it was not alone 
a New York celebration. The descendants of those from other States, who 
aided in vi-inning the victory, were here, not as guests, but because they had a 
right to be here. One of the Connecticut regiments was made up from the east- 
ern part of the State, from New London and Windham counties. To that my 
father belonged. He was a lieutenant in the line and adjutant of the reguuent. 
Colonel Latimer was the commander. My father's warrant as adjutant is dated 
the 17th of October, 1777, and was given on this field. He has been dead fifty- 
three years, and the earliest recollections of my boyhood are sitting on his knee 
and listening to the stories of the march, the camp and the battle-field, ^^'ith all 
the eagerness belonging to that period of life. Those tales made an impression 
on my mind too deei^ and too vivid ever to be erased. May I quote to you a 
stanza of a Song, which he was in the habit of singing, especially on the return 
of this day, a day he never failed to celebrate, as he celebrated the 4th of July. 

It ran thus : 

" The ITth ot October, 

The morning being clear. 
Brave Gates unto his men did say 

' My boys be of good cheer, 
For Burgoyne he is advancing, 

And we will never fly, 
But to maintain our chartered rights, 
We'll flght until we die.' " 



ScHUYLEKVILLE. 321 

The eloquent orator who has preceded me has alhided to the manner in which 
General Arnold bore himself on the field at the final battle before the surrender. 
I well recollect hearing my father say that Arnold came dashing along the line, 
the speed at which he rode leaving his aid far behind, and as he came up to my 
futlier"s regiment he called out, " Whose regiment is this ?" My father replied, 
"Col. Latimer's, sir."' "Ah," said he, "my old Norwich and Now London 
friends. God bless you ; I am glad to see you. Now come on boys ; if the day 
is long enough, we'll have them all in hell before night." General Arnold was a 
native of Norwich and was born within fifty rods of my house in that town. For 
his preWous services and for the gallantry he displayed here, we felt proud of him 
as a son of Connecticut. Subsequently, he became a son of perdition, and so we 
let him pass. 

Among the numerous incidents that my father used to relate, which occurred a 
sliort time prior to the surrender of Burgoyne, I call to mind one that I mil repeat. 
His regiment was ordered at a certain time to take up a new position. In march- 
ing through the woods to the ])ost assigned them, they encountered a body of 
Hessians who were lying in ambush in tlieii' way, and who rose up suddenly and 
fired upon them. My father was marching by the side of Colonel Latimer. On 
receiving the enemy's fire, the colonel slapped his hand on his thigh, as my father 
thought in a rather excited manner, and called out, fire! The order was very 
promptly obeyed, and the order to form in line was almost simultaneously given. 
My father was marching with a musket, which he snapped when the order to fire 
was given, but from some defect in the musket-lock, it stopped at half-cock, and 
did not go ofi. Most of tlie men by this time had changed their positions, and 
my father was left standing almost alone. He made up his mind, however, not 
to leave till he had (ired his gun. He re-cocked it, took aim again, pulled the 
trigger and fired. He then took his place in the regiment, and after one or two 
more volleys, the Hessians retreated in disorder. On reaching their position, the 
regiment pitched their tents and encamped. My father occupied a tent with 
Colonel Latimer, and at night, when the colonel pulled off his boots to turn in, a 
bullet dropped from one of them on the ground. This led to an examination, 
and they soon found that his coat which liad long pocket-flaps, reaching down on 
his legs, had a bullet hole through one of the pockets. In that pocket, the 
colonel had a large pocket-book quite filled with papers, and among them his 
colonel's commission. Tlie bullet had passed througli this pocket-book, and was 
tlius so deadened in its force, that on reaching the colonel's person it made only a 
slight indentation in the skin and dropped down into his boot. This served to 
exi)lain tlie hurried niauiier of .slajjping liis thigli with his hand when the first fire 
of the Hessians was received. The slight twinge which the bullet gave him was 
immediately forgotten in the excitement of the occasion. The commission was 
folded as it lay in the pocket-book, and when opened, it showed seven bullet holes 
through it. My father always alluded to that commission as one that a soldier 
would prize. 

I would like also to say something of the march of my father's regiment toward 
Albany the day after the surrender, and the crossing of "the Sprouts" of the 
Mohawk — the lateness of the hour forbids. 

Allusion has been made to some of the battle-fields famous in the world's history, 
and this is surely worthy of mention in that connection. Dr. Johnson said that that 
man was little to be envied whose patriotism did not grow warmer on the plain of 
41 



322 Centennial Celebrations. 

Marathon. There certainly can be no man with an American heart in his bosom, 
whose patriotism is not warmed into a fervid glow on this plain of Saratoga. 

After the speech, the Chainiiau of the stand said : 

Ladies and GENTt.EMEN : 

The commemorative exercises of to-day are over. Our first centennial celebra- 
tion has been made a magnificent success by the eloquence of our speakers and the 
golden sunshine with which we have been favored. It becomes my duty now to 
adjom'n this meeting for one hundred years. 



EXEECISES AT THE NOETH STAND. 



mTRODUCTOEY ADDEESS OF HON. GEOEGE W. 
SCHUYLEE. 

One hundred yeare ago General Burgoyne, at the head of a large and well ap- 
pointed army, on these grounds, surrendered to the undisciplined forces of a few 
millions of people just struggling into national existence. It is only natural that 
we should forget the event for a moment, and inquire as to the actors in the drama. 
Standing upon the ground where the surrender was made we look into the past. 
We see the English general with well-disciplined legions and savage allies sweep- 
ino- through the northern lakes and down through the valley of the Hudson, driv- 
inf the little army of the republic from post to post. In tlieir front we see the 
army of citizen soldiers, few in number; without uniform, without supplies, almost 
without arms, disputing the way step by step, until, recruited from the farms and 
workshops of New England and New York with a Spartan band from the sunny 
South, they take position on the heights of Saratoga, and stay the onward pro- 
gress of the enemy. 

We see the armies preparing for the contest — there the English regiments, and 
their German mercenaries, with Canadians and Indians at their flanks — here the 
patriot army unused to arms, but self reliant and hopeful. 

We see the form of General Gates at the door of his tent, at a safe distance from 
the scene of conflict, sending by messengers his orders to his otficers in the field. 
We see the fiery Arnold at the head of his command charging furiously — the 
brave and prudent Lincoln leading his men into the deadly strife — the lion- 
hearted Jlorgan with his southern riflemen raining deadly fire on the enemy's wav- 
ering ranks — we see thousands of noble heroes intent upon victory or death. 

Still gazing back off to the left, up the valley of ttie Mohawk, we behold the 
dying Il-erkimor with his patriot band witliin the toils of Butler's tories and Indian 
allies at Oriskany — we see the gallant Gansevoort at Fort Schuyler sending word 
to St. Leger and his beleaguering hosts, "we will hold the fort or die," — and 
near by we see Hon Yost (termed half-witted) and one Indian companion, warily 
threading their way through the forest alone to raise the siege, and reUeve the 
half-stai-ved garrison. 



SCHUYLEKVILLK 323 

Still backward, oil to the right, aiiumg the green liills of Vermont, our gnze 
rests upon the manly form of the modest and determined Stark. Surrounded with 
his hardy nciglibors they arc rejoicing in victory over the cohorts of General 
Baum. 

But among the hosts of brave and gallent men there is one that fixes our gazing 
eyes. In citizen's drcs.s, quiet, dignified, earnest, he looks, as he is, the hero. 
Pardon me, fellow citizens, while we take a longer look at tliis one than at the 
others. 

Fatherless, in his boyhood he assumed the place of a father in his dead father's 
family. Reserved and silent, in early youth he began tlie battle of life. In early 
manhood his business pursuits associate him with an English officer with whom 
against the French of Canada he acquires some knowledge of war. In later years 
we see him as a legislator contending for the lights of the people against the 
abuses of arbitrary power. We see him sacrificing social position and the friend- 
ships of years, and voting for the right, sometimes alone. 

Later the congress place him in command of the northern department, with 
the rank of Major-general . He knows the difficulties of the position with no army 
no arms, no supplies, no money, no credit. But his patriotism will not allow him 
to decline, and he accepts the trust with all its responsibilities. In the depart- 
ment of the north were included the uppervalley of the Hudson, the Lakes George 
and Champlain with the contiguous territory stretching through the wilderness to 
Canada; and the valley of the Mohawk with the almost unknown country beyond 
to the great lakes. These had been the gi-eat highway through which the French 
for more than a (century had led their armies to devastate the outlying settle- 
ments, and, if possible, to capture Albany, thus giving them control of the terri- 
torj' west of the Hudson. Through tliese valleys it was believed the English would 
now seek to lead their armies, gain possession of Albany and the lower Hudson, 
thus sundering the colonics and making it easy to subdue the patriots in detail. 
In anticipation of these designs the northern general organized a force for the in- 
vasion of Canada, and by con(iueringthat province securely closed the gates through 
which our State might be attacked. He successfully opposed the influence of Sir 
William John.son and his numerous tory adherents, organized the patriots, and 
placed the valley of the Mohawk in a position of defense He procured arms 
and supplies for the troops, pledging therefor his personal responsibility and his 
private fortune. His small anny under the command of an able general penetrates 
the enemy's country, capturing their forts and strong positions until before the 
walls of Quebec the gallant Montgomery fell, when the tide of success is turned. 

In the following year he is confronted by a large and well-appointed army, 
before whom his handful of men is forced to retreat out of Canada through the 
lakes down to the Hudson. Another army composed of regulars. Canadians, 
tories and Indian.s, marches from Oswego to the upper valley of the Mohawk and 
lays siege to Fort Schuyler, the only obstacle between them and Abany. 

Our general has not yet an army sufficiently strong to meet and resist this 
double invasion. He is without supplies or money. Congress fails to render 
efficient support. There is di.salTcction in the ranks, and coldness among the 
people. But he is not dismayed. He is still hopeful and pleads for assistance. 
Forced to retreat, step by step he obstructs and delays the advance of the enemy, 
gaining the needed time for re-enforcements to join him. At last reaching a 
strong defensible position, with an army reunited in numbers and courage, he 
prepared for battle. He saw his enemy far from his base of supplies, his numbera 



324 Centennial Celebrations. 

depleted by battles and desertions, his line of retreat cut off, and he knew that 
with a well-delivered blow that enemy must submit to capture. But when about to 
strike, his arm was arrested. His domestic foes had proved more powerful than 
hostile armies, and had prevailed on congress to remove him from command. 
Another takes his place, who, almost against his own will, delivers the battle 
already prepared, and is crowned mth the glory belonging to another. 

Although wronged and insulted, his love of country did not grow cold. His 
advice and services, still sought, were rendered cheerfully. He encouraged his 
friends in the army, and when the victory was won, he rejoiced with perfect satis- 
faction. Standing on the neighboring heights, he witnessed the destruction ot 
his mills and manufactories, of his houses and barns, of his crops and orchards, 
by the defeated and fleeing enemy, and called it " the fortune of war." In his 
tent he received the widows and orphans of enemies slain in battle, soothing their 
sorrows and supplying their wants. In his own house, in the city, he gave 
asylum to the captive general and his officers, winning their sympathies for his 
oppressed and struggling people. 

He saw the rewards of his own personal labor and sacrifices bestowed upon 
another. He saw tlie crown prepared for himself placed upon the brow of an 
alien. He endured detraction and reproach. But his love for the cause never 
failed. Freedom from the yoke of England became a passion which no flattery 
could soothe, no wrong extinguish. 

The memory of General Philip Schuyler needs no eulogy from one who bears 
his name, and in whose veins there is only a trace of collateral blood. History 
will yet do him justice. Posterity will crown him the hero of Saratoga. The 
nation will recognize him as the general who prepared the battle which won our 
freedom. 



HISTORICAL ADDEESS BY WILLIAM L. STONE. 

The battles of the 19th of September and the 7th of October were so fully 
described at the Bemns Heights celebration, that I pass at once to the occur- 
rences succeeding that event, and immediately preceding the surrender. 

On the morning of the day succeeding the action of the 7th of October, Bur- 
goyne, before daybreak, left his position, now utterly untenable, and defiled on 
to the meadows by the river (Wilbur's basin) where were his supply trains; but he 
was obliged to delay his retreat until the evening, because his hospital could not 
be sooner removed. He wished also to avail himself of the darkness. The 
Americans immediately moved forward, and took possession of the abandoned 
camp. Burgoyne having concentrated his force upon some heights, which were 
strong by nature, and covered by a ravine running parallel with the intrench- 
ments of his late camp, a random fire of artillery and small arms was kept up 
through the day, particularly on the part of the German ■ chasseurs and the pro- 
vincials. These, stationed in coverts of the ravine, kept up an annoying fire 
upon every one crossing their line of vision, and it was by a shot from one of 
these lurking parties that General Lincoln received a severe woiuid in the leg 
while riding near the line. It was evident from the movements of the British 
that they were preparing to retreat; but the American troops, having in the 
delirium of joy, consequent upon their victory, neglected to draw and eat their 



SCHUYLEKVILLE. 325 

rations — being withal not a little fatigued with the two days' exertions, fell back 
to theii" camp, which had been left standing in the morning. Retreat was, 
indeed, the only alternative left to the British commander, since it was not quite 
certain that he could not cut his way through the American army, and his sup- 
plics were reduced to a short allowance for live days. 

Meanwhik', in addition to the chagrin of defeat, a deep gloom pervaded the 
British camp. The gallant and beloved Frascr — the life and soul of the army 
— lay dying in the little liouse on the river bank occupied by Baroness Riedesel. 
That lady has described this scene witli sucli unaffected pathos that we give it in 
her own words, simply premising that on tlie previous day she had expected Bur- 
goyne, Phillips and Fraser to dine with her after their return from the recon- 
naisance. She says: 

"About four o'clock in the afternoon, instead of tlie guests who were to have 
dined witli us, they brought into me upon a litter poor General Fraser, mortally 
wounded. Our dining table, which was already spread, was taken away, and in 
its place they fixed up a bed for the general. I sat in a corner of tiie room, tremb- 
ling and quaking. The noises grew continually louder. The thought that they 
might bring in my husband in the same manner was to me dreadful, and tor- 
mented me incessantly. The general said to the surgeon, ' Do not conceal any 
thing from me. Jliist I die? ' The ball had gone through his bowels precisely as 
hi the case of JIajor Ilarnage. Unfortunately, however, the general had eaten a 
hearty breakfast, by reason of wliich the intestines were distended, and the ball 
had gone through them. I lieard him often, amidst his groans, exclaim, ' O fata 
ambition ! Poor General Burgoyne ! My poor wife ! ' Praj^ers were read to him. 
He then sent a message to General Burgoyne, begging that he would have him 
buried the following day at si.x o'clock in the evening, on the top of a hill which 
was a sort of a redoubt. I knew no longer which way to turn. The whole entry 
was filled with tlie sick, who were suffering with tlie camp sickness — a kind of 
dysentery. I spent the night in this manner; at one time comforting Lady Ack- 
land, whose husband was woimded and a prisoner, and at another looking after 
my cliildren, wliom I had put to bed. As for myself, I could not go to sleep, as 
I had General Fraser and all the other gentlemen in m_v room, and was constantly 
afraid tliat my children would wake up and cry, and thus disturb the poor dying 
man, who often sent to beg my pardon for making me so much trouble. About 
three o'clock in the morning they told me that he could not last much longer. I 
had desired to be apprised of the approach of this moment. I accordingly wrapped 
up the children in the coverings, and went witli them into tlie entry. Early in 
the morning, at eight o'clock, he died.* 

" After they had washed the corpse, they wrapped it in a sheet and laid it on a 
bedstead. We then again came into the room, and had this sad sight before us the 
whole day. At every instant, also, wounded officers of my acquaintance arrived, 
and the cannonade again began. A retreat was spoken of, but there was not the 

• General Fraser belonged to the house of Lovatt, whose family name was Frascr. The Earl of 
Ix>vatt was one of the noblemen who were compronwsed by the rebellion of the last Stuart pre- 
tender, and whose fortunes were ruined at the battle of'TuIIoden. in 174.5 General Fraser. a 
scion of the house, of a sanj^nine temperament, ardent ami ambitious, entered the army, and 
became so distinpTuished for his military ability as to be aflvanced to the rank of bripalie'r-pen- 
eral, and was selected for a command in Rurfjoyne's expedition. He hail received intimations that 
if the enterprise were successful, the government would revoke the act of attainder, and restore 
lo him the family title and estates. \\ ith a kn'iwledce of the.se facts, it is en.-sy to understan<l the 
meaning of tfce woimiled gencrars exclamations as he lay waiting for death iii the little "Taylor 
Farm-house " — the first alluding to the sad extinction of his own cherished hopes or well-earned 
position and renown, the second betraying his anxiety for his commander, whose impending dis- 
grace he clearly foresaw 



326 Centennial Celebrations. 

least movement made toward it. About four o'clock in the afternoon I saw the 
new house wliich had been built for me, in flames ; the enemy, therefore, were not 
far from us. We learned that General Burgoj'ne intended to fultill the last wisli 
of General Fraser, and to have liini buried at six o'clock in tlie place designated 
by him. This occasioned an unnecessary delay, to wliich a part of the misfortunes 
of the army was owing. 

" Precisely at six o'clock the corpse was brought out, and we saw the entire 
body of generals with their retinues assisting at the obsequies. The English 
chaplain, Mr. Brudeuell, performed the funeral services. Tlie cannon-balls flew 
continually around and over the party. The American general, Gates, afterward 
said that if he had known that it was a burial, he would not have allowed any 
firing in that direction. Many cannon-balls also flew not far from me, but I had 
my eyes fixed upon the hill, where I distinctly saw my husband in the midst of 
the enemj''s fire, and therefore I could not think of my own danger." "Cer- 
tainly, " says General Riedesel, in his journal, ' ' it was a real military funeral — one 
that was unique of its kind." 

Gen. Burgoyne has himself described this funeral with his usual eloquence and 
felicity of exjaression: "The incessant cannonade during the solemnity; the 
steady attitude and unaltered voice with which the chaplain officiated, though 
frequently covered with dust, which the shot threw up on all sides of liim ; the 
mute but expressive mixture of sensibility and indignation upon every counte- 
nance — these objects will remain to the last of life upon the mind of every man 
who was present. The growing duskiness added to the scenery, and the whole 
marked a character of that juncture that would make one of the finest subjects 
for the pencil of a master that the field ever exhibited. To the canvas, and to 
the faithful page of a more important historian, gallant friend ! I consign thy 
memory. There may thy talents, thy manly virtues, their progress and their 
period, find due distinction; and long may they survive, long after the frail rec- 
ord of my pen shall be forgotten ! " 

As soon as the funeral services were finished and the grave closed, an order was 
issued that the army should retreat as soon as darkness had set in ; and the com- 
mander who, in the beginning of the campaign, had vauntingly uttered in general 
orders that memorable sentiment, "Britons never go back," was now compelled 
to steal away in the night, leaving his hospital, containing upward of four hun- 
dred sick and wounded, to the mercy of a victorious and hitherto despised enemy. 
Gates in this, as in all other instances, extended to his adversary the greatest 
humanity. 

The army began its retrogade movement at nine o'clock on the evening of the 
8th, in the midst of a pouring rain, Riedesel leading the van, and Phillips bring- 
ing up the rear Avith the advanced corps. 

In this retreat the same lack of judgment on the part of Burgoyne is apparent. 
Had that general, as Riedesel and Phillips advised, fallen immediately back 
across the Hudson, and taken up his former position behind the Batten Kill, not 
only would his communications with Lake George and Canada have been restored, 
but he could at his leisure have awaited the movements of Clinton. Burgoyne, 
however, having arrived at Dovogat two hours before daybreak on the morning 
of the 9th, gave the order to halt, greatly to the surprise of his whole army. 
"Every one," says the journal of Riedesel, "was, notwithstanding, e^'en then of 
the opinion that the army would make but a short stand, merely for its better 
concentration, as all saw that haste was of the utmost necessity, if they would get 



SCIIUYLERVILLE. 327 

out of a dangerous trap." At this time tlie heights of Saratoga, commantling the 
ford across Fish creek, were not yet occupied by the Americans in force, and up 
to seven o'clock in the morning the retreating army miglit easily have reached 
that ])lace and thrown a Ijridge across the Hudson. General Fellows, who, by 
the orders of Gates, occupied the heights at Saratoga opposite the ford, was in an 
extremely critical situation. On the night of the 8tli, Lieutenant-Colonel Souther- 
land, who Iiad been sent forward to reconnoitre, crossed Fish creek, and, guided 
by General Fellows' fire, found Ms camp so entirely unguarded that he marched 
around it without being hailed. He then returned, and reporting to Burgoync, 
entreated pennissiou to attack Fellows with his regiment, but was refused. "Had 
not Burgoyne halted at Dovogat," says Wilkinson, "he must have reached Sara- 
toga before day, in which case Fellows would have been cut up and captured or 
dispersed, and Burgoyne's retreat to Fort George would have been unobstructed. 
As it was, however, Burgoyne's army reached Saratoga just as the rear of our 
militia were ascending the opposite bank of the Hudson, where they took post 
and prevented its passage." Burgoyne, however, although within half an hour's 
march of Saratoga, gave the siu'prising order that "the army should bivouac in 
two lines and await the day." 

3Ir. Bancroft ascribes this delay to the fact that Burgoyne was still clogged 
with his artiUery and baggage, and that the night was dark, and the road weak- 
ened by rain. But according to the universal testimony of all the manuscript 
journals cvtant, the road, which up to this time was sufficiently strong for the 
passage of the baggage and artillery trains, became, during the halt, so bad by 
the continued rain, that when the army again moved, at four o'clock in the after- 
noon, it was obliged to leave behind the tents and camp equipage, which fell 
most opijortunely into the hands of the Americans. Aside, however, from this, 
it is a matter of record that the men, through their officers, pleaded with Bur- 
goyne to be allowed to proceed notwithstanding the storm and darkness, while 
the officers themselves pronounced the delay "madness." But whatever were 
the motives of the English general, this delay lost him his army, and, perhaps, 
the British crown her American colonies. 

During the halt at Dovogat's there occurred one of those incidents which relieve 
with fairer lights and softer tints the gloomy picture of war. Lady Harriet Ack- 
land liad, like the Baroness Riedesel, accompanied her husband to America, and 
gladly shared with him the vicissitudes of campaign life. Major Ackland was a 
rough, blunt man, but a gallant soldier and devoted husband, and she loved him 
dearly. Ever since he had been wounded and taken prisoner his wife had been 
greatly distressed, and it had required all the comforting attentions of the baron- 
ess to reassure her. As soon as the army halted, by the advice of the latter she 
determined to visit the American camp and implore the permission of its com- 
mander to join her husband, and by her presence alleviate his sufferings. Accord- 
ingly, on the 9th, .she requested permission of Burgoyne to depart. " Though I 
was ready to believe," says that general, "that patience and fortitude in a 
supreme degree were to be foimd, as well as every other virtue, under the most 
tender forms, I was astonished at tliis proposal. After so long an agitation of 
spirits, e.xliausted not only for want of rest, but absolutely want of food, drenched 
in rains for twelve hours together, that a woman should be capable of such an 
undertaking and delivering herself to an enemy, probably in the night, and uncer- 
tain of what hands she might fall into, appeared an effort above liuman nature. 



328 Centennial Celebrations. 

Tlie assistance I was enabled to give was small indeed. All I could furnish to her 
was an open boat, and a few lines, written upon dirty wet jjaper, to General Gates, 
recommending her to his protection." 

In the midst of a driving autumnal storm. Lady Ackland set out at dusk, in an 
open boat, for the American camp, accompanied by Mr. Brudenell the chaplain, her 
waiting-maid, and her husband's valet. At ten o'clock tliey reached the American 
advanced guard, vmder the command of Major Henry Dearborn. Lady Ackland her- 
self hailed tlie sentinel, and as soon as the batteau struck the shore, the party 
were immediately conveyed into the log-cabin of tlie major, wlio had been ordered 
to detain the flag until the morning, the uight being exceedingly dark, and the 
quality of the lady unknown. Major Dearborn gallantly gave up his room to his 
guest, afire -i^as kindled, and a cup of tea j^rovided, and as soon as Lady Ack- 
land made herself known, her mind was relieved from its anxiety by the assur- 
ance of her husband's safety. " I visited," says xVdjutant-General Wilkinson, "the 
guard before sunrise. Lady Acklaud's boat had put off, and was floating down 
the stream to our camp, where General Gates, whose gallantry will not be denied, 
stood ready to receive her with all the tenderness and respect to which her rank 
and condition gave her a claim. Indeed, the feminine figure, the benign aspect, 
and polished mannei-s of this charming woman were alone sufficient to attract the 
sympathy of the most obdurate; but if another motive could liave been wanting 
to inspire respect, it was furnished by the peculiar circumstances of Lady Har- 
riet, then in that most delicate situation wliich cannot fail to interest the solicitudes 
of every being possessing the form and feelings of a man,"* 

On the evening of the 9th the main portion of the drenched and weary army 
forded Fish creek, waist deep, and bivouacked in a wretched position in the open 
air on the opposite bank. Burgoj'ne remained on the south side of the creek, 
^vith Hamilton's brigade as a guard, and passed the night in the mansion of Gen- 
eral Schuyler. The officers slept on the ground \vith no other covering than oil- 
cloth. Nor did their wives fare better. "I was wet," says the Baroness Riede- 
sel, ' ' through and through by the frequent rains, and was obliged to remain in 
this condition the entire night, as I had no place whatever where I could change 
my linen. I therefore seated myself before a good Are and imdressed my chil- 
dren, after which we laid down together upon some straw. , I asked General 
Phillips, who came up to where we were, why we did not continue our retreat 
while there was yet time, as my husband had pledged himself to cover it and 
bring the army through. ' Poor woman, ' answered he, ' I am amazed at you. 
Completely wet through, have you still the courage to wish to go further in this 
weMher! Would that you were our commanding general! He halts because he 
is tired, and intends to spend the night here, and give lis a supper.' " Burgoyne, 
however, would not think of a further advance that night; and while his army 
were suffering from cold and hunger, and every one was looking forward to the 
immediate future with apprehension, " the illuminated mansion of General Schuy- 
ler," says the Brunswick .lournal, "rang with singing, laughter, and the jingling 
of glasses. There Burgoyne was sitting with some merry companions at a dainty 
supper, while the champagne was flowing. Near him sat the beautiful wife of an 



* The kinrlness which Imd been shown to his wife Major Ackland reciprocated, while on a 
parole in Jsew York, by doing ail in his power to mitifrate the snlTerinjrs of the A?nerican prison- 
ers. His end was particnlarl,\', sad. On his return to Enfcland he was killed in a duel to which he 
been challenged for having warmly defended American courage against the aspersions of a 
brother oi^cer. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 329 

Engli-li fdiiunissary, his mistress.* Great as the ralamity was, tlie frivolous gcn- 
enil still kept up his orgies. Some were eveu of opinion that ho had merely 
made that inexcusable stand for the sake of passing a merry night. Ricdesel 
thought it his duty to remind liis general of the danger of the halt, but tlie latter 
returned all sorts of evasive answers." This statement is corroborated by the 
Baroness Riedesel, who also adds; " The following day General Burgoyne repaid 
tlic liosjiitaljle shelter of the Schuyler mansion by burning it, with its valuable 
barns and mills, to the ground, under pretense that he might be better able to 
cover his retreat, but others say out of mean revenge on the American general." 

But the golden moment had fled. On the following morning, the 10th, it was 
discovered that the Americans, under Fellows, were in possession of the Batten 
Kill, on the opposite side of thelTudson; and Burgoyne, considering it too hazard- 
ous to attempt the passage of the river, ordered the army to occupy the same 
quarters on the heights of Saratoga which they had used on first crossing the 
river on tlie 13th of September. At the same time he sent ahead a working party 
to open a road to Fort Edward, his intention being to continue his retreat along 
the west bank of the Hudson to the front of that fort, force a passage across, and 
take possession of the post. Colonel Cochran, however, had already garrisoned 
it with two liuiidred men, and the detachment hastily fell back upon the camp. 

Meanwhile General Gates, who had begun the pursuit at noon of the 10th with 
his main army, reached the high ground south of Fish creek at four the same 
afternoon. The departure of Burgoyne's working party for Fort Edward led him 
to believe that tlie entire British army were in full retreat, having left only a 
small guard to protect their baggage. Acting upon this impression, he ordered 
Nixon and Glover, with their brigades, to cross the creek early the next morning, 
under cover of the fog, which at this time of the year usuallj' prevails till after 
sunrise, and attack the British camp. The English general had notice of this 
plan, and placing a battery in position, he posted liis troops in ambush behind the 
thickets along the banks of the creek, and concealed also by the fog, awaited the 
attack, confident of victory. At early daj'light Morgan, who had again been 
selected to begin the action, crossed the creek with his men on a raft of floating 
logs, and falling in with a Britisli picket, was fired upon, losing a lieutenant and 
two privates. This led him to believe that the main body of the enemy had not 
moved; in which case, with the creek in his rear, enveloped by a dense fog, and 
unacquainted with the ground, he felt his position to bo mo.st critical. 

Meanwhile the whole army advanced as far as the south bank of the creek, and 
halted. Nixon, however, who was in advance, had already crossed the stream 
near its confluence with the Hudson, and captured a picket of sixty men and a 
number of batteaux, and Glover was preparing to follow him, when a deserter 
from the enemy confirmed the suspicions of Morgan. This was corroborated, a 
few moments afterward, by tlie capture of a reeouuoitering paity of thirty-five 
men by the advanced guard, under Captain Goodale, of Putnam's regiment, who, 
discovering tliem through the fog just as he neared the opposite bank, charged, 
and took them witliout firing a gun. Gates was at this time at his head-quarters, 
a mile and a half in the roar; and before intelligence could be sent to him, the 



* Were this statement made by the Baroness Rledeselalone, and not by the Brunswick Journal, 
it would t)e necessary to receive it witii caution, since her pre.iudices often carried heruninten- 
tioiially into e.xtrrMJit's. Mr. Fnnl>lan<|uc. Iiowovor, in his admirable Z/i/c an<l Cnrrcni>nmleurc t'f 
General l}iiiy'>iiii'\ admits this by implication. l)ut seelis to leave the impression that the cham- 
pagne and the " flirtation." a.s he calls it. were indulced in to relieve the mental agony consequent 
upon his defeat. Jlr. Fonblanqne's honk is cliaraclerized bj- great fairness and liberality of tone 
—a oiix'umstauee which must commund it to tli« American reader. 

43 



330 Centennial Celebrations. 

fog cleared up, and exposed the entire Britisli army under arms. A heavy fire of 
artillery and musketry was immediately opened upon Nixon's brigade, and they 
retreated in considerable disorder across the creek. 

General Learned had in the meantime reached Morgan's corps with his own and 
Patterson's brigades, and was advancing rapidly to the attack in obedience to a 
standing order issued the day before, that, "in case of an attack against any 
point, whether in front, flank, or rear, the troops are to fall on tlie enemy at all 
quarters." He had arrived witliin two hundred yards of Burgoyne's batterj^, and 
in a few moments more would have been engaged at great disadvantage, when 
Wilkinson reached him with the news that the riglit wing, under Nixon, had 
given way, and tliat it would be prudent to retreat. The brave old general hesi- 
tated to comply. " Our brethren," said he, "are engaged on the right, and the 
standing order is to attack." In this dilemma Wilkinson exclaimed to one of 
Gates' aids, standing near, " Tell the general that his own fame and the interests 
of the cause are at hazard — that his presence is necessary with the troops." 
Then, turning to Learned, he continued, " Our troops on the right have retired, 
and the fire you hear is from the enemy. Although I have no orders for your 
retreat, I pledge my life for the general's approbation." By this time several 
field officers had joined the group, and a consultation being held, the proposition 
to retreat was approved. Scarcely had tliey faced about, when the enemy, who, 
expecting their advance, had been watching their movements with shouldered 
arms, fired, and killed an officer and several men before they made good their 
retreat. 

The ground occupied by the two armies after this engagement resembled a vast 
amphitlieatre, the British occujDying the arena, and the Americans the elevated 
surroundings. Burgoyne's camp, upon the meadows and the heights of Saratoga 
north of Fish creek, was fortified, and extended half a mile parallel with the 
river, most of its heavy artillery being on an elevated plateau north-east of the vil- 
lage of Schuylerville. On the American side Morgan and his sharp-shooters were 
posted on still higher ground west of the British, extending along their entire 
rear. On the east or opposite bank of the Hudson, Fellows, with three thousand 
men, was strongly intrenched behind heavy batteries, while Gates, with the main 
body of Continentals, lay on the high ground south of Fish creek and parallel 
with it. On the north, Fort Edward was held by Stark with two thousand men, 
and between that post and Fort George, in the vicinity of Glens Falls, the Amer- 
icans had a fortified camp ; while from the surrounding country' large bodies of 
yeomanry flocked in and voluntarily posted themselves up and down the river. 
The " trap " which Riedesel had foreseen was already sprung. 

The Amei'icans, impatient of delay, urged Gates to attack the British camp; 
but that general, now assured that the surrender of Burgoyne was only a question 
of time, and unwilling needlessly to sacrifice his men, refused to accede to their 
wishes, and quietly awaited the course of events. 

The beleaguered army was now constantly under fire both on its flanks and 
rear and in front. The outposts were continually engaged with those of the 
Americans, and many of the patrols, detached to keep up communication between 
the center and right wing, were taken prisoners. The captured batteaux were of 
great use to the Americans, who were now enabled to transport troops across the 
river at pleasure, and re-enforce the posts on the road to Fort Edward. Every 
hour the position of the British grew more desperate, and the prospect of escape 
less. There was no place of safety fur the baggage, and the ground was covered 



SCHUYLERVILLK. 33] 

willi (Iciul lior^cs lliat liad oitlirr been killorl by tlic fiii'iiiy's bulk'ts or by exhaus- 
tion, as tlicro liad Iji-cn no forage for four days. Even for the \voun<loil there 
was no sjiot that could afford a safe slieUer while tlie surgeon was binding up 
their wounds. The whole cauip became a scene of constant fighting. The sol- 
dier dared uot lay aside his arms night or day, except to excliange his gun for 
the spade when new intrenchments were to be thrown up. He was also debarred 
of water, althougli close to Pish creek and the river, it being at the liazard of 
life in the day-time to procure any, from tlie number of sharp-shooters Jlorganhad 
])OSted in trees, and at niglit he was sure to be taken prisoner if he attempted it. 
The sick and wounded would drag themselves along into a quiet corner of the 
woods, and lie down and die upon the damp ground. Nor were they safe even 
here, since every little wliile a ball would come crashing down among the trees. 
The few houses that were at the foot of the heights were nearest to the fire from 
Fellows' batteries, notwithstanding which the wounded officers and men crawled 
thither, seeking protection in the cellars. 

In one of these cellars the Baroness Riedesel ministered to the sufferers like an 
angel of help and comfort. She made them broth, dressed their wounds, purified 
the atmosphere by sprinlding vinegar on hot coals, and was ever ready to [lerfonii 
any friendly service, even those from which the sensitive nature of a woman will 
recoil. Once, while thus engaged, a furious cannonade was opened upon the 
house, under the impression that it was the head-quarters of the English com- 
mander. " Alas! " says Baroness Riedesel, ''it harbored none but wounded sol- 
diers or women!" Eleven cannon balls went through the house, and those in 
the cellar could plainly hear them crashing through the walls overhead. One 
poor fellow, whose leg they were about to anipulato in the room above, had his 
other leg taken off by one of these cannon balls in the very midst of the operation. 
The greatest suffering was experienced by the wounded from thirst, whicli was 
not relieved imtil a soldier's wife volunteered to bring water from the river. This 
she continued to do with safety, the Americans gallantly withholding their fire 
whenever she apiieared. 

Meanwhile order grew more and more lax, and the greatest misery prevailed 
throughout the entire army. The commissaries neglected to distribute provisions 
among the troops, and although there were cattle still left, no animal had been 
killed. More than thirty officers came to the baroness for food, forced to this 
step from sheer starvation, one of them, a Canadian, being so weak as to be 
unable to stand. She divided among them all the provisions at hand, and having 
exhausted her stcn'e without satisfying them, in an agony of despair she called to 
Adjutant-General Petersham, one of Burgoyne's aids, who chanced to be passing 
at the time, and said to him passionately, " Come and see for yourself these offi- 
cers who have been wounded in the common cause, and are now in want of every 
thing that is due them ! It is your duty to make a representation of this to the 
general." Soon afterward Burgoyne himself came to the Baroness Riedesel and 
thanked her for reminding him of his duty. In reply she apologized for meddling 
with things she well knew were out of a woman's province; still, it was impos- 
sible, she said, for lier to keep silence when she saw so many brave men in want 
of food, and had nothing more to give them. 

On the afternoon of the 12th 15in-goyne held a consultation with Riedesel, 
PhiHi|is, and the two brigadiers, Hamilton and Gall. Riedesel suggested thai 
the baggage should be left, and a retreat begun on the west side of the Hudson : 
and as Fort Edward had been re-enforced by a strong detachment of the Ameri- 



332 Centennial Celebrations. 

cans, lie furtlier proposed to cross the river four miles above that fort, and con- 
tinue the march to Ticouderoga through the woods, leaving Lake George on the 
right — a plan which was then feasible, as the road on the west bank of the river 
had not j-et been occupied by the enemy. This proposition was approved, and an 
order was issued that the retreat should be begun by ten o'clock that night. But 
when every thing was in readiness for the march, Burgoyne suddenly changed his 
mind, and postponed the movement until the next day, when an unexpected 
maneuver of the Americans made it impossible. During the night the latter, 
crossing the river on rafts near the Batten Kill, erected a heavy battery on an emi- 
nence opposite the mouth of tliat stream, and on the left fiank of the army, thus 
making the investment complete. 

Burgoyne was now entirely surrounded ; the desertions of his Indian and 
Canadian allies,* and the losses in killed and wounded, had reduced his army one- 
half; there was not food sufficient for five days; and not a word from Clinton. 
Accordingly, on the 13th, he again called a general council of all his officers, 
including the captains of companies. The council were not long in deciding 
unanimously that a treaty should be at once opened with General Gates for an 
honorable surrender, their deliberations being doubtless hastened by several rifle- 
balls perforating the tent in which they were assemljled, and an 18-pound cannon- 
ball sweeping across the table at which Burgoyne and his generals were seated. 

The following morning, the 14th, Burgoyne proposed a cessation of hostilities 
until terms of capitulation could be arranged. Gates demanded an unconditional 
surrender, which was refused; but he finally agreed, on the 15th, to more moder- 
ate terms, influenced by the possibility of Clinton's arrival at Albany. During 
the night of the 16th a provincial officer arrived unexpectedly in the British camp 
and stated that he had heard, through a tliird party, that Clinton had captured 
the forts on the Hudson highlands, and arrived at Esopus eight days previously, 
and further, that by this time he was very likely at Albany. Burgoyne was so 
encouraged by this news, that, as the articles of capitulation were not yet signed, 
he-resolved to repudiate the informal arrangement with Gates. The latter, how- 
ever, was in no mood for temporizing, and being informed of this new phase of 
affairs, he drew up his troops in order of battle at early dawn of the next day, 
the 17th, and informed him in plain terms that he must either sign the treaty or 
prepare for immediate battle. Riedesel and Phillips added their persuasions, 
representing to him that the news just received was mere hearsay, but even if it 
were true, to recede now would be in the highest degree dishonorable. Burgoyne 
thereupon yielded a reluctant consent, and the articles of capitulation were signed 
at nine o'clock the same morning. 

They provided that the British were to march out with the honors of war and 
to be furnished a free passage to England under promise of not again serving 
against the Americans. These terms were not earned out by Congress, which 
acted in the matter veiy dishonorably, and most of the captured army, with the 
exceptions of Burgoyne, Riedesel, Phillips and Hamilton, were retained as prison- 
ers while the war lasted. The Americans obtained by this victory, at a very 
critical period, an excellent train of brass artillery, consisting of forty-two guns 
of various calibre, 4,647 muskets, 400 sets of harness, and a large supply of 

*In justice to riuigoyiie it slioukl be stated that tlie chief cause of the desertion of liis Indian 
allies was the fact that they were checked by him in their scalping and plundering of the unarmed. 
Indeed, the conduct of the Enghsh general was, in this respect, most humane; and yet, with 
strange inconsistency, be was among the first strenuously to urge upon Lord North the employ- 
ment of the Indinns'aeainst the colonists. See Fonlilanque's work, p. 178. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 333 

iinimuiiition. The prisoners numbered 5,804, and the entire American force at 
the time of tlie surrender, including regulars (Continentals) and militin, was 
17,091 effective men. 

At eleven o'clock on the morning of the ITth tlie royal army left their fortified 
camp, and formed in line on the meadow just north of the Fish creek, at its 
junction with the Hudson. Here they left their cannon and small-arms. With 
a longing eye the artillery-man looked for the last time upon his faitliful gun, 
parting ^vith it as from his bride, and that forever. "With tears trickling down 
his bronzed cheeks, the bearded grenadier stacked his musket to resume it no 
more. Others, in their rage, knocked off the butts of their arms, and the drum- 
mers stamped their drums to pieces. 

Immediately after the surrender, the British took up their march for Boston, 
whence they expected to embark, and bivouacked the tirst night at their old 
encampment at the foot of the hill where Fraser was buried. As they debouched 
from the meadow, having deposited their arms, they passed between the Conti- 
nentals, who were drawn up in parallel lines. But on no face did they see exulta- 
tion. "As we passed the American army," writes Lieutenant Anbury, one of the 
captured officers, and bitterly prejudiced against his conquerors, "I did not 
observe the least disrespect, or even a taunting look, but all was mute astonish- 
ment and pity; and it gave us no little comfort to notice this civil deportment to 
a captured enemy, unsullied with the exulting air of victors." 

The English general haWng expiessed a desire to be formally introduced to 
Gates, Wilkinson arranged an interview a few moments after the capitulation. In 
anticipation of this meeting, Burgoyne had bestowed the greatest care upon his 
whole toilet. He had attired himself in full court dress, and wore costly regimentals 
and a richly decorated hat with streaming plumes. Gates, on the contrary, was 
dressed merely in a plain blue overcoat, which had upon it scarcely any thing 
indicative of his rank. Upon the two generals first catching a glimpse of each 
other, they stepped forward simultaneously, and advanced until they were only a 
few steps apart, when they halted. The English general took off his hat, and 
making a polite bow, said, "The fortunes of war, General Gates, has made me 
your prisoner." The American general, in reply, simply returned his greeting, 
and said, " I shall always be ready to testify that it has not been through any 
fault of your excellency." As soon as the introduction was over, tlie other cap- 
tive generals repaired to the tent of Gates, where they were received witli the 
utmost courtesy, and with the consideration due to brave but unfortunate men. 

After Riedesel had been presented to General Gates, he sent for his wife and 
children. It is to this circumstance that we owe the portraiture of a lovely trait 
in General Schuyler's character. " In the passage through the American camp," 
the baroness writes, "I observed, witli great satisfaction, that no one ca.st at us 
scornful glances; on the contrary, they all greeted me, even showing compassion 
on their countenances at seeing a mother with her little children in such a situa- 
tion. I confess I feared to come into the enemy's camp, as the thing was so 
entirely new to nie. When I approached the tents, a noble looking man came 
toward me, took the children out of the wagon, embraced and kissed them, and 
then, with tears in his eyes, helped me also to alight. lie then led me to the tent 
of General Gates, with whom I found Generals Burgoyne and Phillips, who were 
upon an extremely friendly footing with him. Presently the man, who had 
received me so kindly, came up and said to me, ' It may be embarrassing to you to 
dine with all these gentlemen ; come now with your children into my tent, where 



334 Centennial Celebrations. 

I will give you, it is true, a frugal meal, but one that -will be accompanied -n-ith 
the best of wishes. ' ' You are certainly, ' answered I, ' a husband and father, 
since you show me so much kindness. I then learned that he was the American 
General Schuyler." 

The English and German generals dined with tlie American commander in his 
tent on boards laid across barrels. The dinner, which was served up in four 
dishes, consisted only of ordinary viands, the Americans at this period being 
accustomed to plain and frugal meals. The drink on this occasion was cider, and 
rum mixed -n-ith water. Burgoyne appeared in excellent humor. He talked a 
great deal, and spoke very flatteringly of the Americans, remarking, among other 
things, that he admired the number, dress, and discipline of their army, and, 
above all, the decorum and regularity that were observed. " Yom- fund of men," 
he said to Gates, "is inexhaustible; like the Hydra's head, when cut off, seven 
more spring up in its stead." He also proposed a toast to General Washington — 
an attention that Gates returned by drinking the health of the king of England. 
The conversation on both sides was unrestrained, aflfable, and free. Indeed, the 
conduct of Gates throughout, after the terms of the surrender had been adjusted, 
was marked with equal delicacy and magnanimity, as Burgoyne himself admitted 
in a letter to the Earl of Derby. In that letter the captive general particularly 
mentioned one circumstance, which he said, exceeded all that he had ever seen or 
read of on a like occasion. It was that when the British soldiers had marched 
out of their camp to the place where they were to pile their arms, not a man of 
the American troops was to ie seen, General Gates having ordered his whole army 
out of sight, that no one of them should be a spectator of the humiliation of the 
British troops. This was a refinement of delicacy and of military generosity and 
politeness, reflecting the highest credit upon the conqueror. 

As the company rose from the table, the royal army filed past on their march to 
the seaboard. Thereupon, by preconcerted arrangement, the two generals stepped 
out, and Burgoyne, drawing his sword, presented it, in the presence of the two 
armies, to General Gates. The latter received it with a courteous bow, and imme- 
diately returned it to the vanquished general. 

General Burgoyne added to a prepossessing exterior the polished manners and 
keen sagacity of a courtier. He was also -svitty and brave. But personal courage 
alone does not constitute a commander ; for of a commander other qualities are 
expected, especially experience and presence of mind. Burgoyne lacked both. 
In his undertakings he was hasty and self-willed. Desiring to do every thing 
alone, he hardly ever consulted with others; and yet he never knew how to keep 
a plan secret. While in a subordinate position, continually carping at his military 
superiors and complaining of the inferiority of his position, yet ^^■hen given a 
separate command he was guilty of the same faults whicli he had reprehended in 
others. Being a great Sybarite, he often neglected the duties of a general, as 
well toward his king as his subordinates ; and while he was enjoying choice food 
and wines, his aimy suffered the keenest want. Soon after the surrender he 
returned to England, and justly threw the failure of the expedition upon the 
administration.* He was received very coolly at first by the court and people, the 

*There can be no doubt that had Burg:oyne been properly supported by Howe, he would., despite 
his mistakes, have reached Albany, since in that case Gates would not have been at .*^tillwater with 
an army of men to oppose him. IMr- Fonblnnque makes public, for the first time, a fact throwing 
entire new light on tne appai-ent failure of Howe and clears up all that has hitherto seemed mys- 
terious and contradictory. Orders fully as imperative as those to Burgoyne i\'ere to have been 
sent to Howe, but owing to the carelessness of Lord Germaine, they were" pigeon-holed and never 
forwarded. Hence he obeyed discretionary orders sent him previously, and concluded to go to 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 335 

king refusing to see him; but, upon a change of the ministry, he regained somc- 
wliat of Ills popularity. 

In regard to General Gates, the same incapacity which afterward characterized 
liis unfortunate southern campaign was manifested from the time of his assuming 
the leadership of the northern army until the surrender. It was, perhaps, no 
fault of his that he had been placed in command at the North just at the auspi- 
cious moment when the discomliturc uf Burgoyne was no longer problematical. 
But it is no less true that the laurels won by him ought to have been worn by 
Schuyler. Wilkinson, who was a member of Gates's own military family, has 
placed this question in its true aspect. He maintains that not only had the army 
of Burgoyne been essentially disabled by the defeat of the Germans at Benning- 
ton, before the arrival of Gates, but that the repulse of St. Leger, at Fort Stan- 
wi.x, had deranged his plans, while safety had been restored to the western 
frontier and the panic thereby caused had subsided. He likewise maintains that 
after the reverses at the North, nowise attributable to liim, and before the arrival 
of Gates, the zeal, patriotism, and salutary arrangements of General Schuyler had 
vanquished the prejudices e.xcited against him; that by the defeat of Baum and 
St. Leger, Schuyler had been enabled to concentrate and oppose his whole Conti- 
nental force against the main body of the enemy ; and that by him, also before 
the arrival of Gates, the fiiends of the Revolution had been reanimated and 
excited to manly resistance, while the adherents of the royal cause were intimi- 
dated and had shrunk into silence and inactivity. From these premises, which 
are indisputable, it is no more than a fair deduction to say that "the same force 
which enabled Gates to subdue the British army would have produced a similar 
effect under the orders of General Sclmyler, since the operations of the campaign 
did not involve a single instance of professional skUl, and the triumph of the 
American arms was accomplished by the physical force and valor of the troops, 
under the protection and direction of the God of battles." 

A poem entitled '• The Field of the Cirounded Arms," written in 
1831, by FiTz Gkeene Halleck, was tlien read by Gen. James Gkant 
Wilson. 



ADDRESS BY B. W. THEOCKMOETOlSr. 

Who among us has ever gazed upon scenes more magnificent and inspiring than 
those by which we are this day surrounded. In IMilton's phrase, they might 
" create a soul under the ribs of death." We stand >ipon holy haunted ground. 
We gaze u|)on a vast sea of humanity. Now surging and restless, now lulled to 
quiet, even as the ocean swells and slumbers. A quickened mass ; awakened to 
an intensity of patriotism. Above, a clear October sky, from which the sunlight 
falls like a benediction. Around us hills rising into mountains, illuminated by 
heroic deeds and events, with no less brightness than that which now glorifies 
them, shining resplendent as they do in their rich autumnal colors, by "nature's 

Pbilndclphia. inst«a<I of to Albany merely telling Clinton, it other re-enforcements came meanwhile 
from l^nglanrl. he niiglit make a diversion in favor of Burgoyne. PrinwrUy^ then, tlie failure of 
BurLTovnc's expp(Iitii»n was duo to the neplicrence of ttie war minister Even, however, with the 
failure of Howe's support. lUirgovne. but for his errors, might have joined Clinton. Neither does 
this failure of Howe palliate the blunders by wiiieh he lost his army during the retreat. It should 
also be stated that Burgovne. in arranging wit h t he king for the campaign, insisted most stronglj" 
that his success depended on Howe's eo- operation. 



336 Centennial Celebrations. 

own sweet and cunning hand laid on." Almost at our feet the historic Hudson, 
the " still-water " of the olden time, glides onward with murmurs harmonious as 
music heard in dreams. While beyond from tlie hilltops, wreathed masses of 
smoke curl upward from batteries, planted where one hundred years ago other 
cannons belchc'd forth their fires, signals to the commanders in the field. Parti- 
cipating in the ceremonies of an occasion sucli as this, surely one may say, life has 
not been lived altogether in vain. Such a celebration has no mere sectional import. 
It is national in its interest. The pride felt by New York to-day provokes no 
jealousy in other States. A representative, so to speak, of New_ Jersey, let me 
say a word for her. Her sacrifice in blood and treasure, in proportion to her 
wealth and population, v/as as great, during the revolutionary struggle, as that of 
any other colony ; indeed some historians assert they were greater. She is immor- 
tal in the memories of Princeton, Trenton and Monmouth. 

Some of her troops formed a part of the right wing of Gates's army during the 
battle of Bemus Heights, September lOtli; and more would have shared with 
those of New York and other of the colonies the glories of Saratoga, had they 
not, vnth Washington at their head, been engaged in defending their own fire- 
sides. New Jersey is jealous of the glorious work she did in securing for this 
nation its independence. Yet to-day, she congratulates New York that, upon its 
soil were fought the battles that, being crowned witli victory, secured the French 
alliance, and dissipated the gloom that had hitherto hung like a pall over the 
hearts of those who hoped and struggled for the ultimate of American liberty. 

Orators and poets have this daj' alreadj' painted the scenes of the past, so 
glowinglj', that they stand out before the imagination even as the colors of the 
master upon the canvas. 

There seems to be but little left for me, save the work of needless reiteration. 
And yet, I cannot refrain from adding my contribution of spoken words to this 
occasion. In one respect, it almost seems a melancholy one. 

Who shall say otherwise, when contemplation dwells upon the subsequent 
career of iiim, who was perhaps the most conspicuous actor in the drama, the 
end of which was announced, when the curtain fell upon the surrender of Bur- 
goyne? 

Millions have lived upon the earth, and given expression to thoughts that should 
never die. Heroism has been displayed and sacrifice endured on land and sea, 
deserving of deathless memory. Deeds have been performed in every walk in 
life that might put to blush many that are recorded as the noblest ; yet, as to 
these, history is silent. Poetry tunes not her lyre, and not even a name is graven 
upon churchyard stone. Lives that have benefited the world seem to have been 
but as drops that fell into the ocean of time and were lost. 

A great virtue may never be remembered, but how deathless is a great crime! 

But for the valor of Benedict Arnold, there had been no reason, perchance, for 
the assembling of this vast concourse, and this corner stone might never have 
been laid, of a monument, which, when completed according to design, will 
recall witli startling and awful emphasis, a deed that blackened a soul, and had 
for its purpose the ruin of a nation ! 

Remembering the services Arnold rendered his country upon the battle-field of 
Saratoga, one can almost wish that oblivion might blot his name from the future 
pages of history. But this could not be. 

To every virtue, doubtless its reward! To every evil, its avenging sequel! 



SciirVLKUVILLK 337 

And, it would almost seem that the avenging sequel to the evil Benedict Arnold 

wrought would affright the world against, the crime of treason ! 

Woiindud Ijc'fore Quebec, Arnold wrote: "lam in the way of duty, and I 

know no fear." 

"Conscience does make cowards of us all." 

He knew what "fear" was when he skulked from the presence of Washington 
and made liis traitor flight from West Point. It was at Saratoga, a century ago, 
October 17th, that a shot struck the leg that had been wounded at Quebec. 
Better a thousand times it had pierced the heart or cleft the brain of him whose 
own treachery taught him cowardice. 
A very old couplet runs thus : 

"Burgoyiie, alas, unknowing future fates. 
Could force his way through woods, but not 
Through Gates." 

Unmerited honor is even in this quaint rhyme bestowed upon one, who, in 
Scliuyler's place, should have stood in citizens dress beside the commander who 
received the sword of Burgoyne. 

The blows that crippled the English general were struck September 19th, and 
October 7th, 1777. On the morning of the 19th both armies were ready for 
battle. Gates, of whom Bancroft says, "he had no fitness for command, and 
wanted personal courage," had determined to act upon the defensive within his 
own lines, and scarcely left his tent throughout tlie whole of the conflict. Toward 
noon of the day, a hoarse gun booms its echoes tli rough the surrounding counti-y. 
It is the signal for the advanced guard of the enemy to move forward. At 
lengtli a large force push toward the left, right and center of the American army. 
Yielding at last to Arnold's repeated persuasions and entreaties. Gates permits 
him to send out Morgan and Dearborn to begin the offensive. American pickets 
drive back a party of Canadians, tories and savages. Burgoyne prepares to fall 
upon the American right and center. Fraser seeks to turn the American left. 
Arnold makes a rapid and brilliant movement to turn the British right, but faDs, 
because Gates refuses to furnish him with re-enforcements. 

Each army now pressed forward with little knowledge of the other's move- 
ments because of the density of the forest. Unexpectedly they meet, and a des- 
perate conflict ensues upon the banks of Mill creek, the waters of which run red 
with blood. Arnold, forced back by Fraser, rallies his men and hurls them upon 
the foe with an impetuosity that compels the enemy to waver, but witli the aid of 
fresh troops they stand firm. There now comes a lull — like tlie sudden quiet 
that precedes the giant storm; the jjause in which nature seems to steady herself 
for resistance to the blow that must fall — and the terrible tempest of battle is 
renewed. An intervening wood shelters the Americans. The Britisli are in an 
open pine forest. Burgoyne recommences his hostilities with a fierce cannonade, 
orders a bayonet charge, aud pushes columns of iiifantiy across the cleared space 
toward tlie .Vmerican troops. The latter, silent and motionless, wait until the fire 
of the foe has been drawn, and then hurl themselves with such fury upon them 
that they are forced back half way. Arnold is at head-quarters, pleading for re- 
enforcements in vain. He is told that the battle is again raging. That victory 
for either side hangs in the balance. Impatiently exclaiming, " I'll soon put an 
end to it," he mounts his horse and sets off at full speed. His presence infuses 
new ardor into the troops, and for three hours the conflict raises, closing only 
43 



338 Centennial Celebrations. 

■when darkness enwraps the scene. "But for ArnoW on that eventful clay," says 
Lossing, " Burgoyne would doubtless have marched into Alljany, at the autumnal 
equinox, a victor." 

And again during the fearful and decisive battle of October 7tli, where was 
General Gates? Directing his orders from the camp, and part of the time 
engaged in wordy discussions with his prisoner, Sir Francis Clarke, upon the 
merits of the Revolution. Where was Arnold? Refused a command through 
the jealousy of his superior officer, hurt to the core by the indignity thus heaped 
upon him, he watches with eager eyes the progress of the battle. He sees Mor- 
gan hurl himself with resistless fury upon the British right flank and throw it 
iuto confusion ; sees Dearborn with fresh troops attack the shattered masses of 
the foe ujjon their front ; sees their terrified flight, but marks their rally under the 
inspii'ation of Lord Balcarras; unable longer to keep down the impetuous ardor 
that forces him to the front, he puts spurs to his horse and rushes headlong into 
the conflict. Gates instantly sends Jlajor Armstrong to call him back. Arnold 
beholds him coming, guesses his purpose, and before it can be carried out is at 
the head of three regiments, and in the very thickest of the contest. From this 
moment, mid flame and smoke and the terrible heat of battle, he is the master 
power. With sword in hand, tlic incarnation of valor, he encourages by voice 
and action those wlio follow him even to a point within the enemy's intrench- 
meuts. Here, at the head of the troops he has led to victory, the foe in full re- 
treat, wounded and disabled himself and his horse killed beneath him, he is over- 
taken by jMajor Armstrong with Gates's order that he return to camp, lest he 
might do something rash." The " rash something " he had already done — made 
Burgoyne's surrender a foregone conclusion. The student of history, pau?ing 
here, might well think a grateful people would erect upon this scene of conspicu- 
ous triumph, a monument dedicated to Arnold alone. But the corner stone of 
such a monument will never be laid. And when the monument, of which the 
cornerstone is this day laid, shall lift its granite shaft one hundred and fifty feet 
toward the heavens, there will be niches in the four large gables — three filled with 
groups of sculptured bronze, representing the three generals, Schuyler, Gates and 
Morgan, the fourth vacant with the word " Arnold " underneath. 

The glory earned by Arnold at Saratoga is obliterated by his subsequent treason, 
the reward for which was fifty thousand doUai-s and the brevet rank of brigadier 
in the British army. Who shall estimate his punishment ? His countrymen exe- 
crated him. Even one of his own kin could write the scorching acrostic, pro- 
nounced by Lossing to be "bad poetry, and worse sentiment." 

" Born for a curse to virtue and manldnd. 
Earth's Viroadest realms ne'er knew so black a mind; 
Night's sable veil your crimes can never hide, 
Each one so great 'twould glut historic tide; 
Defunct your cui-sed memory shall Hve, 
In all the glare that infamy can give. 
Cui-ses of ages will attend your name. 
Traitors alone will glory in your shame. 

Almighty's vengeance sternly waits to roll 
Rivei-s of sulphur on your treacherous soul; 
Nature looks shuddering back with conscious dread, 
On such a tarnished blot as she has made. 
Let hell receive you, rivetted in chains, 
Doom'dto the hottest focus of its flames." 



SciiuYLERvrr.LE. 339 

Ami llioiigh 111' iV(H-iv(-'<l Hiilish guld iukI rank lie was dospiscil by the nation that 
bought lihn. 

English statesmen refused to speak in the House of Commons, observing Arnold 
in the gallerj-. And upon one occasion when George III was addressing parlia- 
ment, Benedict Arnohl stood at his right iiand. Lord Lauderdale, on returning 
to the Commons, could not restrain an expression of his indignation that his maj- 
esty sliould have been su[)ported by a traitor! Lord Balcarras, with whom he 
almost crossed swords at Saratoga, and who there recognized him as a brave and 
lionoralilc foe, spurned an introduction, even at the hands of his sovereign, re- 
marking, as he turned upon his heel, "I know General Arnold, and I despise 
traitors." A challenge followed from Arnold. The two met. They were to fire 
simultaneously. The signal being given, Arnold discharged his weapon. Lord 
Balcarras turned contemptuously away without even deigning to aim. "My lord,'' 
exclaimed Arnold, " why do you not fire ? " " Sir," said Lord Balcarras, " I leave 
you to the executioner." The prejudice of English oflicers was so great that 
when he made application to serve in tlie war between England and Fiance, it was 
denied because they refused to associate with him. 

Something of an insight into Arnold's own feeling may be obtained from his 
reply to Talleyrand, who, knowing him simply as an American, requested some 
letters to some friends in his own country. His answer was: "I was born in 
America, and have lived there; and I am the only man in the wide world who 
can raise his hand to heaven and say, 'I have not one friend in America; no, not 
one! My name is Benedict Arnold." " 

The consciousness of crime, tiie knowledge of the loss of men's regard, the cer- 
tainty of being an object of loathing, the stings and smitings of conscience are 
terrible enough, but an immortal, tainted memory is more terrible still. Through- 
out ages to come, thousands in each succeeding generation will visit this spot to 
view the monument that commemorates the surrender of Burgoyne. The niche 
left vacant, will prompt, forever, the question "why?" But one answer can be 
made. 

That niche can never really be vacant — empty to the sight — Benedict Arnold 
will fill it. There he will stand, pilloried before the gaze of centuries, ten thou- 
sand times more than if a figure of bronze met the eye with the word "traitor" 
stamped upon it. The designers of the monument leave that vacant niche from 
no fondness in contemplating the dark crime of the traitor, but because of the 
lesson it must forever teach. By its warning may it help to enkindle throughout 
the length and breadth of our laml a love of country so fervent, that from hence- 
forth there .will be no need for empty niches in any monuments erected upon our 
soil, to commemorate American achievements.* 

* In strilvinp contrast to the sentiments of the aorostie in the text is tlie following: letter, which. 
Itself ft model of tenderness and simplicity, was wiitten by Hannah Arnold to Benedict Arnold. 
anil ha-s lately been furnislicd nie thi'ough llie kindness of Hon. Horatio Seymour. The original 
is in the possession of Jliss A. Varick, New York City. IS. \V. T. 

N. Haven, J'n?ic, 1775. 
" Dear Brother : 

Take this opportunity pr C'apt. Oswald to conKratulnto you on your late success in reducinR 
TioonderoKa and nuikinir yourself master ()f the ves.sels on the lakes. Sincerely wish all your 
future ftidi-avors to serve .voureomitry may be crowned witli equal success Pity the fatipue you 
must nnav. lidaldy suffer in the wilderness. But as the cause is uniloubtedly a Just one hope you 
may have health. strtMiKth, fortitude and valor for whatever you may be ealfed to. 3Iay the broad 
hand of the Almi^^bty overshadow you; and if catic'd to battle may the God of armies coverVour 
head in the day of it, Tis to Iliin and Ilim oidy my di'ar brother that we can look for safety or 
success. His power Is ever able to shield us from the pestilence that walks in darkness and* the 
arrows that fly by nnouday. May a Christian resignation to His will strengthen your hands and 



340 Centennial Celebrations. 



ADDEESS OF H. L. GLADDING. 

In listening to the eloquent sentences of the gentlemen who have preceded me 
on this Centennial occasion, I have been reminded of the words which the great 
dramatist puts into the mouth of the Archbishop of Canterbury in reference to 

King Henry V — 

When he speaks, 
The air, a chartered libertine, is still, 
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears 
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences. 

For the scenes of the decisive events which we to-day celebrate, and the deeds of 
the brave men who were actors in them, have been so graphically portrayed that 
nothing is needed to be added to the noble tribute which has been here paid to 
the heroes of October, 1777. 

It is said that on entering the apartment that contains the matchless statue of 
the Apollo Belvidere, and standing before that most wonderful creation of human 
genius, there is on the part of the visitor an involuntary straightening up of the 
figure, a standing erect, and a feeling that his own form dilates, becoming taller 
and nobler. 

And so to-day, coming among these scenes, and standing upon tliis consecrated 
ground made forever memorable by an event which gave form and shape to the 
future destiny of the young republic, there is an instinctive lifting up of the soul; 
and as upon this one hundredth anniversary we gather to reverence the memory of 
its heroes and to call the roll of tliose gallant men — Morgan, Dearborn, 
Learned, Ten Broeck, Lincoln, Glover, Poor, Cilley, Kosciusko and Schuyler, 
and their no less gallant associates in the ranks — the men who took part in or who 
were instrumental in bringing about this glorious consummation, among whom 
were some of the noblest figures that ever stood in the fore-front of a nation's life 
— we to-day cannot fail to be imbued with something of the spirit which ani- 
mated them and a desire to emulate their noble patriotism and their self-sacrific- 
ing efforts. 

The declaration of freedom made on the 4th of July, 1776, did not immedi- 
ately bring forth the fruits of freedom. Years of struggle were necessary. A 
new-born nation, accustomed only to peaceful pursuits, without a standing army, 
without a navy, was to confront on many fields of bloody strife an old and pow- 
ful government; a government which through hundreds of years had been trained 
in martial arts, which had amassed great wealth and secured vast material resour- 

fortify your heart. May you seek His aid and rest your whole confidence in Him; and then you 
■will have no tear but that of offending Him ; and it we are to meet no more in time may a wise 
preparation tor eternity secure to us a happy meeting in the realms of bliss, where pamtul separ- 
ations are forever excluded. The men who went under your care to Boston give you the praises 
of a very humane, tender officer. Hope those now with you may meet with an equal degree of 
tendcrnrs:s and humanity. 

\n\n- littlp family are all well. Benedict is eager to hear every thing relative to his papa. Mr. 
Maiistii-l.l. contrary to all expectations, is again able to ride out ; and his physicians think he is m 
a fair way of recovering a comfortable state of health. BIr. Harrison, you have undoubtedly 
heard, is dead by a fit of the apoplexy. We have numbers of people daily coming here from N. 
York and Boston. Capt. Sears, and Kirs. Brown, and Piatt with several other families from \ork, 
are now here The world seems a universal flutter and hurry. What the event will be God only 
knows. But in all its changes of this I am certain, that your health aud prosperity are dear to 

me as my own. , „ . ... 

Your affectionate sister, 

Hannah Arnold." 



SCHUYI.KUVILI.K. 341 

ces, a uiitioii whose armies were the acknowledged coiKjucrors of the earth, and 
whose flag everywhere proclaimed her the mistress of the seas. 

The year which followed the declaration of independence witnessed little else 
than a series of disasters to the cause of the colonists. With the exception of 
Trenton, Priucetown and Bennington, the long list of reverses to our arms wjis 
almost unbroken. It was indeed the most gloomy period of the Revolution; it 
was the crisis of the struggle of these colonies for independence. Look at the 
sad record of the year. First the defeat of Putnam on Long Island, of McDou- 
gall at White Plains, of the brave Col. Magaw at Fort Washington, with the loss 
of two thousand of the best troops in the American army. Then came the aban- 
donment of Ticondcroga, a fortress deemed impregnable — the loss of Fort Ann 
and Fort Edward — the defeat at Ilubhardton — the terrible reverse at Brandy- 
wine — the defeat of the impetuous Wayne at Paoli — of Washington himself at 
Germantown — and the loss of Forts Clinton and Montgomery. The mere men- 
tion of these names brings to our minds continued scenes of gloom and suffering. 
For the greater part of the time during these sad months, from August, 1776, to 
October, 1777, our army, reduced in numbers, de[n-essed by defeat, exhausted by 
fatigue, naked, barefoot, destitute of tents, and with scanty provisions, was flee- 
ing before a triumphant enemy, who was well appointed and abundantly sup- 
plied. And worse than all the continued triumphs of the British had produced 
a common appreliensitm (in the minds of the people of the Middle States at least, 
if not generally), that any further struggle would be useless and that this coun- 
try must eventually return to her allegiance to Great Britain. 

But this long and gloomy night of defeat and disaster was about to pass away, 
and joy and a new hope was to spring up in the heart of this people in the bright 
morning of victory. 

The conflict of October 7th, 1777, was to demonstrate the fact that the Conti- 
nental armies were able to meet the martial hosts of Britain and her mercenaries 
in the open field, and to scatter them as the dead leaves of the forest before a 
mighty wind. As the annies of ancient Israel, under divine guidance, were to 
overcome their enemies, however great in numbers or skilled in war, so under the 
direction of the God of buttles were our fathers upon these fields to overcome the 
proud and powerful hosts of Great Britain. 

We have heard to-day in glowing words the story of Saratoga. Masters of the 
art have pictured to us the scenes and incidents of the campaign, which its pro- 
jectors believed would end in the complete subjection of tlie colonies to the 
mother country. We have seen the British general on his triumphant march 
from Canada, fortress after fortress falling an easy prey into his hands. We have 
seen the hosts of England crossing the Hudson and for the first time planting 
their feet upon the soil of old Saratoga. We have seen Burgoyne's army in holi- 
day attire, with drums beating and colors flying, with furbished arms glisteniun- 
in tlie sunlight, marching to what they believed would be an assured victory. 
We have seen that on the 10th of September, this proud army for the first time 
learned tliat their march to Albany was not to be a holiday pastime. We have 
seen the conflict that waged on both sides with desperate valor, a conflict that 
was only closed by the mantle of niglit falling over the scene. 

Then we have been brought face to face with the second act in this terrible 
drama. We have seen the British army, brought to bay on the memorable 7th 
of October, making a last des])eratc elTort to cut its way through the ranks of the 
opposing forces, in the hope to join Sir Henry Clinton upon the lower Hudson. 



342 Centennial Celebrations. 

But it was not so to be. General Burgoyne, wlio on the 6th of August, -wrote 
so confidently to General Howe, "I shall be in possession of Albany on the 32d 
or 23d," was indeed to be there only a-little more than two months later, not, how- 
ever, as lie had anticipated, in the royal robes of a conqueror, but in the sackcloth 
of a prisoner of war. Alas ! the sanguine general forgot the proverb — 

" The man who once did sell the lion's skin 

While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him . " 

And SO on the 7th of October, 1777, the sun went down upon the leagued hosts 
of Britain and Germany discomfited, scattered, overthrown; and these liosts, 
with seeming judicial blindness, not availing themselves of their last hope, a 
speedy retreat, were comjielled only ten days later, upon, this immediate spot, 
under the starry flag, then first thrown to the breeze of heaven, to surrender to 
the hitherto despised army of the colonies. 

" To the sages who spoke, to the heroes who bled, 

To the day and the deed strike the harp string of glory; 
Let the songs of the ransomed remember the dead, 

And the tongue of the eloquent hallow the story; 
O'er the bones of the bold be the story long told, 

And on fame's golden tablets theu- triumphs enrolled. 
Who on freedom's green hills freedom's banner unfurled. 

And the beacon Are raised that gave hghtto the world." 

As the great law giver of ancient Israel was permitted from the top of Pisgah 
to look over into the promised land which was soon to become the possession of 
the Jewish people, so from these green heights one hundred years ago were our 
fathers enabled to see in the near future the Canaan of freedom spreading out in 
all its radiant beauty before them, and as the leader of the chosen people rejoiced 
over the prospect of the promised inheritance of his followers, so did our revolu- 
tionary sii-es in that glad liour rejoice that tlie reward of all their toils was before 
them. And all over the colonies the full hearts of strong men overflowed with 
gratitude and went up to heaven on 'svings of praise to that God who had given 
them the victory. 

And there was to be rejoicing elsewhere over this great event. Our friends 
abroad must speedily learn of tliis glorious success. So the good news goes forth, 
and the manner in which this news is received in Europe clearly shows that there, 
as well as here, the event of the surrender of Burgoyiie's army was regarded as 
decisive of the final result. "A fast sailing vessel is prepared and a special mes- 
senger goes to carry the tidings to France, the natural ally of the young republic. 
The messenger crosses the ocean, arri\-e3 at Paris, and pushes on rapidly to Dr. 
Franklin's residence at Passy; but swiftly as he goes a rumor of the arrival of 
important news precedes him, and on his arrival at Passy he finds the whole cir- 
cle of official Americans there, who, as the noise of his carriage is heard, hurry 
out to meet him. Before he has time to alight Dr. Franklin cries out: 'Sir, is 
Philadelphia taken?' 'Yes,' replies the messenger, 'but I have greater news 
tlian that, General Burgoyne and his A^'hole army are prisoners of war? ' The 
cfiect was thrilling, electrical, ocertehelming, indcscribriNc." In a few days all Europe 
rang with the news, and except the tory party and the holders of English stocks, 
all Europe rejoiced at it. France immediately threw off the veil with which she 
had endeavored to conceal her intentions and notified the British government that 
she had concluded a treaty of alliance, friendship and commerce with the Ameri- 
can States. On the 18th of December, only sixty days after the surrender of 



S('in'vi.i:i;vii,i,E. 343 

IJuigoyne, M. (ii^ninl infoniitid llic Aiiicriciin commissionei-s tli;it, alter niaturc 
deliberation, his majesty Louis XVI, liiid determined to recognize the independ- 
ence of the United States, and tliat lie would not only recognize it, hut would mp- 
jmrt it loith all the meiim in Iiin power. And the deeds of this great nation proved 
the honesty of her words; her material aid was prompt and ellective. The French 
government — which had at that lime a navy that ctiualled if it did not exceed 
Great Britain's — at once fitted out a squadron under Count D'Estaing, which in 
the spring of 1778 sailed for the United States. 

In Kngland the alarm created by the tidings of Burgoyne's surrender was 
increased by the still more fatal news that the disaster had roused the Bourbon 
courts to avenge the humiliation of the seven years' war. The most brilliant suc- 
cess had been expected in the campaign, the most ignominious result had occurred ; 
the pride of the Britisli nation was humbled, and those who had disapproved of 
the war poured upon the ministry a torrent of invective. The Duke of Richmond 
and a large number of Whigs openly advocated the acknowledgment of American 
independence. TJiat noble man and true friend of the colonies, Lord Chatham, 
in the British jjarliament pressed for peace, saying with prophetic ken, "You can 
never conquer America, never, never, never!" Wlien we remember that six 
months 'after this that great man breathed his last, we may conclude that 

'•The sunset of life gave him mystical lore, 
And cominy events cast their shadows before." 

Even in the minds of the British ministry all hope of conquering America had 
disappeared. Under tliese circumstances the cabinet determined to grant to the 
colonies all that they had demanded at the beginning of the contest. Two bills 
of a pacific character were passed by parliament, one of w hich prohibited any fur- 
ther imposition of taxes upon the colonies, and commissioners were sent to America 
to effect a reconciliation. But it v,as too late, the Rubicon had been passed. Con- 
gress refused to treat with the commissioners until Great Britain should withdraw 
her fleets and armies or acknowledge the independence of the.se States. 

Had it not been for the insane obstinacy of one man, the close of the year 1777 
would have witnessed the acknowledgment on the part of Great Britain of Amer- 
ican independence. But King George III was not ready to acknowledge the inev- 
itable. The monarch who in 1774 had vauntingly said, " four regiments will be 
sufficient to bring the Americans to their senses," was not quite prepared to 
acknowledge his mistake. The obstinacy of the king, which was only equaled 
by his ignorance and vulgaritj , was clearly shown in the terms which he proposed 
to Germaine (Lord Shelburne) upon his accession to office as State secretary. The 
king .said to Germaine: I will be plain with you; the point next my heart, and 
which I am determined never to relinquish but with my crown and life, is to 
prevent a total, unequivocal recognition of the independence of America," and he 
added, "promise to supiiort me in this matter and I will leave you unmolested in 
every other and with full power as the prime minister of this kingdom." 

Upon this one hundredth anniversary of tlie great event which more than any 
other event of the Revolution led the way to the practical realization of An\erican 
independence, we take the first steps to commemorate the decisive deed. It is 
proposed upon this corner stone to erect a shaft which in its colossal proportions 
and stately grandeur shall fitly tell to coming ages the story of the glorious deeds 
of October, 1777. 

The noblest obelisk now upon the soil of America is that one which rears its 



3-i4 Centennial Celebrations. 

top heavenward from the crest of Bunker Hill. It is indeed a grand structure, 
worthy of the gallant deeds it commemorates and of the noble State upon whose 
bosoiii it rests. 

But if there is a spot in all this broad land, from the waves of the stormy Atlan- 
tic to the shores of the mild Pacitic, upon wliich should be erected an enduring 
monument with a broader base and more lofty proportions than all others, it is 
here upon these consecrated heights of old Saratoga, where our fathers taught 
the chivalry of England and the pride of Britain's soldiery that in a righteous 
cause they were invincible, and where the world learned the lesson that these uni- 
ted colonies were destined to be, as they of right ought to be, free and independ- 
ent States. 

Let the people of the Empire State see to it that the stain wMeh has hitherto 
rested upon her proud escutcheon, in failing to recognize and honor these great 
events, is speedily effaced. Let them see to it that neither the tardiness of legis- 
lation nor the opposition of the executive is allowed longer to hinder this lauda- 
ble work. The great State of New York owes it to herself in this matter to at 
once refute the libel wliich asserts the ingratitude of republics. " It is time to 
arise and build ! " and the good work, commenced, let it go steadily on to full com- 
pletion. Let this monument ascend in its simple grandeur until the top stone 
shall be brought forth with shoutings of grace, grace unto it. The men of Mas- 
sachusetts commenced the shaft on Bunker Hill, but they left the work for the 
women of Massachusetts to complete. All lionor to the noble women of the old 
Bay State for their high purpose, their indomitable resolution, their unwavering 
faith. But whether it shall be the men of New York who shall do this work, or 
whether by their failure it shall become necessary for the noble, patriotic women 
of this great State to assume tlie responsibility, the work will go on, this monu- 
ment will surely be built. 

And, as was said by Mr. Webster in regard to Bunker Hill monument, so let the 
people say in regard to the Saratoga monumeut, " let it rise until it meets the 
sun in his coming ; let the first rays of the morning gild it and the last beams of 
expu'ing day linger and play upon its summit." 



ADDEESS OF HON". A. A. YATES. 

This is a strange as well as a memorable place. Though here a mighty repub- 
lican empire was born, and here kingly rule met its death-blow, the precise spot 
where a ceremony occurred tliat was the pageantry of a nation's birth, is yet the 
subject of debate and discussion. Men have wandered over meadow and through 
ravine, by brookside and river, to seek in some straggling patch of earthwork, 
some excavation that looks like a rifle pit, for the convincing proof of the place 
whore .lohn Burgoyne made his last parade. The memories of those gone before 
us have been called up, that the testimony of the dead might set at rest the 
doubts of the living — the aid of nature invoked, that her speaking face should 
show us the way or give some landmark that should stand like a way-side shrine 
beside the place where a heroic deed was done, or gleam like a star over the spot 
where a hundred years ago the young chihl of liberty lay. 

Marvelous indeed is it that, though the splendid achievement which this monu- 



SCHUYLKKVILLE. 345 

ment shall commemorate, is so young that its record has but just become impartial 
history — so far from old in the world's story that it has no right to put on the 
silver crown of tradition — yet the visible signs of it are as indistinct as the dust 
and ashes in the Eiiglishnian's coffin — as untraceable as the Hessian's level grave. 
Einliniikment and fortress, eartliwork and embrasure have been flattened by the 
hundred heavy hands of tlie century, or ploughed and riven and harrowed out of 
all resemblance to war by tlie husbandman of peace . 

We believe we are standing now where we should be, on the sacred spot where 
our fathers stood in tlie happy hour of their triumph — that the white spire sliall 
glisten in the morning like a finger jiointing upward from the very place where 
they raised their country from despair to faith, that it shall lay- its shadow at 
evening along the patlnvay wliere the brave nuiu walked to give up his sword to 
braver men. 

We have in times gone by cared but little to know of the earlier days. In our 
splendid progress the eyes of a people, the youngest on earth, have been earnestly 
gazing into tlie future. The centennial has come upon us with a bound. Startled 
— surprised, in our young manhood, this magnificent young giant of a Republic 
halts, astonished at its strength, marveling at its own progress. With all onr 
conscious power — our free, young liealthy life, there comes over us a sense of 
deep and lasting gratitude, a feeling of unutterable and thankful reverence for 
tlie irrand and sturdy ancestors, whose stvibborn, stalwart heroism on fields like 
tliis made free tlie land we love. And we pause in unspeakable sorrow to reflect, 
that while England knows just where King John stood six centuries ago when ho 
surrendered to a favored few the rights of freemen, that while the Irishman 
knows just where his countryman won imperishable renown at Fontenoy, and 
Prussia can show just where the great Frederic won his most splendid victory, 
we are arguing as to whicli side of the stream it was where the Lord of England 
discovered in sorrow and defeat that he could not be master of America. We 
shall take better care of history in the future ! We are gathered to-day, some of 
us cliildren's children of the very men who stood here a hundred years ago, all 
representing different shades of political belief and social life — every one of us 
just hke the men conquered licre — brethren of the same loyal faith in our beloved 
land — fellow citizens united in one common sentiment that overshadows all 
others. And we are looking back with intense interest upon the panorama that 
passed in review before the world's eye just a century ago. Thanks to one 
historic artist who has hunted up the old picture from the national garret, given 
over in our thoughtlessness to rust and decay as useless incumbrance, and by the 
touch of restoring genius has given it to us in all its brilliant hues, we can see it 
distinctly. '\Mio are we tliat look upon it: democrats and republicans? No; a 
thousand times, No! Old revolutionary whigs! Not a tory or the son of a tory 
among us ! Are we conjecturing who shall be governor next year, president two 
years after; who shall be postmaster of Saratoga or town clerk of Stillwater? 
Arc we longfaced or chuckling over the election returns from Ohio ?* Thank 
heaven ! No. We are all with one accord doing homage to those who made 
presidents and governors possible, and filled honored graves before little Ohio 
was born. What a grand spectacle it is and what a strange picture it presents! 
On cither side, drawn up in parallel lines stand the conquerors, in every style of 
garment, with every hue of dress known to the man of a hundred years ago. 

•The political returns from Ohio had just been received. As they were supposed to affect the 
Pruiiidential campaign, they hail an unusual interest. 

44 



o-iP) Centennial Celebkations. 

Not dcfkcd for a holiday parade — this is the iirst they have had for many a 
weary inontli. Tlie smell of the fire of Bemus Heights is yet upon their gar- 
ments, the stain of Stilhvater powder on their bronzed faces. Here and there 
perhaps a uniform of blue and buff, powdered hair, shining boots and showy 
laces on neck and wrist, mark the stylish officer whose pride is as mighty as his 
bravery. On the left the faded green and yellow of Morgan's riflemen. Let us 
recognize them with applause. They came from under a southern sky to rush 
beside their northern brethren against their common enemy. AVe trust in a good 
providence that is making their descendants our brethren once more, that their 
children will never again be found anywhere else. And who are these who march 
between the lines ! Lords and gentlemen, the pet and flower of the English 
army glittering in epauleted splendor, flaring in scarlet and gold, downcast, sul- 
len, disappointed brave men, jsut down by the iron will and resolute valor of men 
who with home behind them and home in their hearts no army could subdue. 

And who are these who wear neither English dress, nor English faces, at the 
sight of whom the colonist grows stern and hard in face and at whom he mutters 
a smothered curse. Tliese are left of those whom John Stark hunted up hill 
and down dale, who, driven through ravine and underl:)rush and liounded like 
beasts of prey, thank the Lord for tlieir rest at last, the hireling Hessians learning 
the lesson yet taught to-day that he who serx'es the cause of wrong for place or 
money will sooner or later in this broad land of ours find not rest for the crown 
of his head or the sole of his foot. 

Within sight of the strange scene, the commanders of either army — the one 
massive and haughty, the very type of his powerful nation beyond the sea, the 
other shorter, plainly dressed, rugged of face — look upon the scene. 

Within sound of the rejoicing is the displaced commander whose patient cour- 
age and brave soul was but illy rewarded wiien the laurel of victory was snatched 
from his grasp. Within siglit of the lovely village that bears his honored name, 
posterity in this hour of commemoration does full and ample justice to the cour- 
age and valor and magnanimity of Philip Schuj'ler. 

Another was absent from the place where the fruits of his rash mad bravery 
were to be gathered. Smarting from the wound that gave him more mental 
suffering than bodily pain, when it took him from the sight of his humiliated 
enemy, the then gallant soldier was fretting and fuming, his impetuous, fiery and 
turbulent nature chained down upon a couch of agony. Would to heaven 
that after the 19th of September the historian had no more to record of 
Benedict Arnold. A hundred years ago this day this land of ours rang 
with his praises and gloried in his splendid name. To-day the sculptor, in , 
obedience to a merciful command, permits the blank imchiseled tablet to be 
expressionless in the story of his shame, — to be faceless and formless, that his 
face and form may be hidden from the people he betrayed, that the sculptured 
silence above his name shall mutely tell of the undeserved forbearance, the 
unfeigned sorrow of posterity. 

There were mellow lights and gloomy shadows in the days tliat followed — the 
land was chequered with the brightness and gloom of victory and disaster, but 
now in the broad light of history that streams upon this place in this, the meridian 
of our national greatness, we know that the morning of our deliverance broke 
upon us here — and tliere is no place on earth where the monumental tribute 
of a nation's pride could more fitly l>e placed, to stamp the soil with a jjeople's 
unforgetting gratitude and crown it with the mausoleum of its heroic deeds. 



SciU'YLEItVILLK. 347 

Wliat a splendiil lesson was liainled down liy tlie men of tliat stern day to tlie 
nuMi of this, %vritteu all over the long miles that were trodden down by the feet 
of contending armies then, that are brilliant with the victories of peace to-day! 

Nations, so runs the story of the world, must be born like man in pain and 
travail. But to march on in progressive greatness there must be years of peace 
on enrih, good will to men. Tliis vast battle-field has been restored to the farmer, 
not by the hand of science nor by the level of the engineer. Military genius has 
not flattened the earthwork which military genius reared. Long years of patient 
labor has made the battle wilderness to bloom, the seamed and scarred ravine to 
blossom with the fruit.^ of the better days of peace. In the fate of him whose 
S])lendid courage and restless genius was the life and soul of yonder battle for the 
rights of the people, let the selfishness that prostitutes the country's good to 
gratify the passion of a jjersonal resentment, or subserve personal ambition, take 
a solemn warning. No glitter of splendid achievement on field or forum will 
reconcile the people of this land to the betrayal of the people's lasting good for 
the price of money, for office or for sectional hatred, and the president, senator 
or soldier who forgets this lesson may remember it in horror in a fall like Arnold's. 

It was shoulder to shoulder, with the touch of elbow that brought the 
conquerors through many red days of carnage to this jjlace of triumph. It 
was tiie northern and the southern soldier wlio fought the fight for the good of 
the whole people. It is in the Union created Oct. 17th, 1777, it is in the Union 
restored Oct. 17, 1877, that by the blessing of God this government of the people, 
by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

Let then this monument rise till it meets the sun in its coming, whose first rays 
lingeiing on Jlount Willard to gild the spot where the faithful sentry stood, shall 
glitter and play upon its summit. Grand and everlasting, its solid firmness shall 
commemorate th&i faith of those who stood as proudly here one hundred j-ears 
ago and perpetuate the memory of those whose dust has been traceless for a cen- 
tury within sight of its spire. Let the last rays of the evening fasten its shade 
on the pathway our fathers walked amid the ringing jjraises of their grateful 
countrymen. 

Let us all come closer together beneath its base. We too have had om- sorrows. 
We have had our killed in battle. We have the mourners who go about our 
streets — we have the widow and the fatherless — we have our poor in heart. 
The evening of our first century has been red as theirs with the scarlet tinge of 
blood. Webster's awful foreboding has been realized. Tlie land has been rent 
with civil discord and drenched with fraternal blood, but we, like the men who 
gathered here, have had our triumjjh and heart-elating victory, and we can thank 
the God of our fathers that the statesman's aspiration has been realized, that the 
new flag first unfolded here waves over a land happy, free and prosperous, that 
there is inscribed upon it no such motto as " what is all this worth " or that other 
miserable inscnption, " Liberty now and Union afterward," but written all over 
its bright folds as it floats over the land and over the sea those other memorable 
words, " Liberty and Union now and forever, one and inseparable." 



348 Centennial Celebkations. 



ODE BY GEISTERAL J. WATTS De PEYSTER, 



READ BY EEV. D. K. VAN DOEEN. 

Brothers, this spot is holy ! — Look around ! — 

Before us flows our mem'ry's sacred river, 
Whose banks are Freedom's Shrines. This grassy mound, 

The altar, on whose height the Mighty Giver 
Gave Independence to our country ; when, 
Thanks to its brave, enduring, patient men. 
The invading host was brought to bay, and laid 
Beneath "Old Glory's" new born folds, the blade, 
The brazen thunder-throats, the pomp of war. 
And England's yoke, broken forever more. 

Like a destroying angel, Burgoyne's host 

Burst through Ticonderoga's bulwarks, hoary; 
And flaming wrecks, wide ruin 'long its coast, 

Renew'd past awful scenes of Champlain's story, 
When France's Lilies dy'd themselves in blood. 
Floated to triumph on Algonquin flood — 
Made William Henry's siege a tale of horror — 
Made Abercrombie's failure land-wide sorrow, 
Like many conflicts though right bravely fought — 
The only comfort was by Schuyler brought. 
Our frontier people shrunk before the scare; 
The load was left for Schuyler 'lone to bear. 

And how he bore it, now, at length, we know ; 

How steadfastly he damm'd the crimson tide ; 
Bafiled and stopp'd the five-fold stronger foe ; * • 

To timid counsels hero strengtli supplied. 
Burgoyne victorious, ere he left Champlain, 
Startled perceived his brilliant prospects wane ; 

Saw in the Lion's path a Mmrod stand ; 
Saw all his mighty projects counterplaun'd; 
Ere Burgoyne reached the Hudson, fast empoigrCd 
In Schuyler's grasp, he felt lie was "Burgoyn'd." 

O mighty soul! — by envious souls decried. 

New York's great son in giant height now stands; 

* Allen says Schuyler ilifl not have over 1,000 men at Fort Edward, and even after he got down to 
Half-Moon, it would aiipcai- that the majority of his troops were boys, old men, negroes and parti- 
colored. It the real triitli muld be reached, there is very little question but that proof exists that 
Burgoyne had over lO.uuo men, regulai*s, provincials or loyalists, Canadians and Indians, when he 
started on this expedition. He himself admits T,SI13 men. Schuyler at Fort Edward, when Bur- 
goyne was within twenty-one miles of him, had only l,.")nO miserably furnished troops. Burgoyne 
surrendered, valids andinvalids. .'>,763 men.to Gates, who had besides staff, batteau-men, artificers, 
etc., a force numbering lS,(i41, according to official returns. Gov. and Gen. Clinton of New York 
estimated the forces of Gen . Gates at between 23,000 and 24,000 armed men. 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 349 

Argus to watch, Ulj'sses to decide, 

Gntli'ring rosourcps witli Hriarean hands, 
nig the victorious field Haikhciiiicr made 
St. Legcr's foil, stopp'd Jolinson's tiger raid; 
Fort Stanwix sav'd, the Mohawk valley sav'd — ■ 
Was all his work, who coward counsels brav'tl ; 
Stali'd honor, fortune, all, upon the throw, 
So by the cast he beat his country's foe; 
Oriskany is due to New York's son; 
Likewise to Schuyler's brain is Bennington, 
Fought on our own State soil, on Hoosic's hill, 
Vict'ries that yet a nation's pulses thrill. 

At length Burgoyne, the haughty, brought to bay 

At Saratoga know our country's might; 
At Freeman's Farm saw triumph fadeaway; 

Saw hope itself take wings on Bemus Height. 
Barr'd, baffled, beaten, crippled, short of food, 
In vain his craft, his vet'ran multitude, 
Caught in the toils througl\ which he could not break, 
Chain'd like a victim to the fatal stake 
Just where we stand — thanks to Sabbaoth's Lord 
Boasting Burgoyne gave up his vet'ran sword. 

Here Albion's battle flag, which, round the world. 
Following the sun at morning-gun's unfurl'd. 
Here, where we stand, the crucial flag of Mars 
Stoop'd in surrender, to our Stripes and Stars 
Where at an army's head, was first display'd 
Our Starry Flag with triumph's halo ray'd. 
A century since Burgoyne surrendered here * 
British dominion its Centennial year 
Had just completed — which its Lion tore 
From Holland's zone, the richest gem it bore, — 
And now assembled thus, we' celebrate 
The triumph sure which seal'd th' invader's fate; 
Without this deed freedom had not been ours 
Without this fact, unbroken Britain's powers; 
Burgoyne defeated, France became our friend, 
A source of strength on which we could depend. 
For all that War's strong sinews constitute — 
To foster Freedom's tree — ^neath us the root. 

All was decided here, and at this hour 

Our sun leap'd up, though cloud.^ still vcil'd its power. 

From Saratoga's hills W(^ date Ihc birth, — 

Our Nation's birth among the powers of earth. 

Not back to '7G New Yorker's date ; 

•The New Netherlanila were not definitelv reded to Great Britain, and did not become perma- 
nently New York nnlil the nth Fehnmrv. mri, by M\e penee signed nt Westminster. The city of 
New Amsterdum or New York was not llnnlly yii'ldfd np, liowever, until tlic lIUli November, llii4. 



350 Centennial Celebrations. 

* The mighty impulse launched our " Ship of State '' 

'Twas given here — where shines our rising sun 
Excelsior! These hills saw victory won. 
This vale the cradle where the colonies 
Grew into States — despite all enemies, 
Yes, on this spot — Thanks to our gracious God 
Where last in conscious arrogance it trod, 
Defil'd as captives Burgoyne's oonquer'd horde ; 
Below * their general yielded up his sword 
There t to our flag bow'd Engliind's, battle-torn. 
Where now we stand I th' United States was born ! 

The exercises at this stand were concluded by the reading of the fol- 
lowing poem, prepared for the occasion. It was written by Col. B. 0. 
BuTLEK, and was read to the multitude by William L. Stone : 



THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 
A Pakaphrasb. 

O say, can you see, by tlie dawn's early light. 

On Saratoga's broad plain what so proudly is streaming. 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight. 
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. 

For our fatliers this day, to this field made their way 

To glory, in the conquest of the foes' proud array. 

And the star spangled banner in triumph sliall wave. 

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

In its field stood the plow, the axe ceased iii the wood, 

'From his log cabin gladly, the wild hunter sallied. 
From city and glen, they came like a flood 

To the ranks wliere the brave and the valiant were rallied. 
O let Stillwater's Heights and Saratoga's dread fight 
Tell how nobly our sires fought and bled for the right, 
Wliile the star spangled banner in triumpli doth wave, 
"O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

*"Belitw." On the alluvial flat, a few feet distant from the foundation of the contemplated 
Saratoga Monument (accordinK to W. L. Stone), Bui-goyne went through the cereiuony of resign- 
ing his sword to (Sates. The Duke de Rochefouoauld-Liancourt (ii, 302) who visited " Saratog " in 
179.5, says that the ceremony took place in the courtyard of Schuyler's ruined homestead. 

t"T/ic)Y." About alumdredrods tothe front and eastward, near the site of old Fort Hardy and 
present village of Schuylerville, the British forces laid down their arms. 

t " W}wrc vdtv iir utm^ih" The Convention of Saratoga traversed all the British plans, lost to the 
Crown an army which could not he replaced, won by the colonies the French alliance, without 
whose men, material and money, independence w.as still an impossibility. And afterward no 
great general battle was fought, nor did the English achieve a isingle success which led, even com- 
paratively .speaking, to important results. The sun of the 17th of October, 1777, witnessed the safe 
delivery of the infant United States. 



SCIIUYLERVILLE. 351 

This (lay, wlien om- sires trod on scepter and chain, 

And tlie foes of proud fJillain were scattered before us, 

Then went up to heaven with loudest acchiim 

From tlie hearts of true freemen, that victory is o'er us. 

'Twas llu/.zah ! Huzzah 1 from the hike to tlie shore, 

Our cause it has triumphed, we are subjects no more — 

The star s|)angl(^il banner in trium|)li doth wave. 

O'er the hind of the free, aud the home of the brave. 

(), thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 

Between Iheir loved home and the foes' desolation, 

lilest with victory and peace, may the heaven-blest land, 
Praise the power that iiath blest, aud preserved it a nation. 

Tlien conquer we must, for onr cause it is just. 

And this be our motto, " In God is our trust," 

And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave. 

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

Letters were read from Benson J. Lossing, jMrs. Ellen Haedik 
Walworth, Hon. ILuiii.Tox Fisii, Wm. C. Bey.\nt, Samuel Osgood, 
Edwin A. MERKm, Ethan Allen, Bayaed Taylor, Wm. M. Evarts, 
and the members of the cabinet, Heney W. Longfellow, Robeet G. 
Ingeesoll, Geoege B. McClellan, J. F. IIaeiranft, and a large 
number of others. 

"Wliile all of these letters are interesting, that of Mrs. Walworth has 
so personal a connection with tlie fight preceding the surrender, especi- 
ally as to- the action of Gen. Morgan's rifle corps, and is itself so inter- 
esting to tiio ordinary student of the history of the Revolution, it is 
reproduced here : 

MRS. WALWORTH'S LETTER. 

Saratoga Sprisos, Srpl. illi, 1S"7. 
Mr. Wm. L. SImie. .9,. •)/; 

Df.aK Sir — Accept my thanks for your polite invitation, to attend the Centennial celebra- 
tion of tlie surrender of Durffoyno. T will endeavor to bo present. It is an occcision in which 
I naturally take a very lively interest,, haviiii; been over the ground many times both practi- 
(^ally and theoretically in tlio preparation of my map of the battles. T have also a traditionary 
interest in the event since my ereat-t'randfalhcr was In l)r)th battles and present at the sur- 
render. As you have requested me to furnish you with a sliort sketch of his life to be used 
at the celebration, T enclose a few items and repret that pressiofj engagements prevent me 
from referrlUK to interesting family papers. 

Colonel .lohn Hardin was born in Fauquier roiinty, Virginia, Oct. 1st, ]7.')3. M.artin Hardin, 
his father, moved from Fauquier county, to George's Creek, on the Monongahoia river, when 
John was about twelve years old. This was a new settlement on the frontier, and Martin 
Hardin thought It was in Virginia, but when the stale line was drawn, it was found to be in 
Pennsylvania In their new situation, hunting was an occupation of necessity. Young 
Hardin, wiih his rifle, traversed the vales, crossed the hills and clambered the mountains In 
search of game until he became one of the most perfect hunters of his time. The rapidity 
and exactness with which he used his rilli' (a weapon still preserved in the family^ made him 
what is called a " dead shut." 



352 Centennial Celebrations. 

In the expedition conducted by Governor Dunmore against the Indians in 1774, John Har- 
din served as ensign in a militia company. The following year he volunteered with Captain 
Jack Morgan, and was wounded during an engagement with the savages. A rifle-ball struck 
his thigh and lodged near the groin whence it was never abstracted. Before he had recovered 
from his wound or could dispense with his crutches, he joined Dunmore in his march against 
the Indian towns. 

Soon after the peace that ensued, Hardin prepared for a .iourney to Kentucky, as the scene 
of new adventures, but rumors of approaching war with Great Britain led him to abandon 
this project. 

When the American congress called for a military force Hardin offered himself to the busi- 
ness of recruiting and soon joined the continental army with the commission of second lieu- 
tenant. He was attached to Morgan's rifle corps, and was held in high esteem by Gen. Dan- 
iel Morgan, and was often selected by him for enterprises of peril which required discretion 
and intrepidity to ensure success. While with the army of Gen. Gates he was sent on a 
reconnoitering expedition with orders to capture a prisoner, for the purpose of obtaining 
information. Marching silently in advance of his party, he found himself, on reaching the 
abrupt summit of a hill, in the presence of three British soldiers and a Mohawk Indian. The 
moment was critical, but without the slightest hesitation he presented his rifle and ordered 
them to surrender. The British immediately threw down their arms, the Indian clubbed his 
gun. Hardin continued to advance on them, but none of his men having come up to his 
assistance he turned his head a little to one side and called them. The Indian warrior 
observing Hardin's eye withdrawn from him reversed his gun with a rapid motion for the pur- 
pose of firing. Hardin caught the gleam of light that was reflected from the polished barrel 
of the gun, and readily divining its meaning, bronght his own rifle to a level, and without 
raising his gun to his face gained the first fire and gave the Indian a mortal wound. The ball 
from the warrior's rifle passed through Hardin's hair. The British prisoners were marched 
into camp and Hardin received the thanks of Gen. Gates. Soon after this he was offered a 
major's commission in a new regiment, but he declined, alleging that he could be of more 
use where he was. 

In 1786. he removed with his wife and family to Kentucky, and was in every expedition 
into the Indian country from that State, that occurred during his life. In 1792 he was sent 
by General Wilkinson with overtures of peace to the Indians. He was on his route to the 
Miami villages, attendedby his interpreter and aparty of Indians who professed to be friendly. 
Tiiey proved to be treacherous and cruel, and shot him to death. The Indian chiefs assem- 
bled in council expressed much regret upon hearing of Hardin's death, though they were 
suspected of having instigated the tragedy, the victim being held in dread as one of the 
"mighty men " of the " dark and bloody ground." 

With cordial wishes for the success of the celebration, I remain. 

Very truly yours, ELLEN HARDIN WALWOBTH. 

LIVING DESCENDANTS OF THOSE WHO FOUGHT IN THE BATTLES 
OP SARATOGA 1777, AS FAR AS ASCERTAINED. 

Collected by Samuel Wells op Sohtotlebtille, N. Y. 

Lafayette S. Foster, Norwich, Conn. J. D. Billings, Few York city, N. Y. 

Lemuel H. Hardin, Louisville, Ky. .Jeremiah McCreedy, do 

Martin D. Hardin, do Robert Bryan, Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 

Austin A. Yates, Schenectady, N. Y Stephen S. Dunn, do 

John Brisbin, St. Paul, Minn. Lewis Ostrander, do 

Josiah St. John, Brooklyn, N. Y. James S. Ostrander, do 

Herman St. John, Luzerne, N. Y. Frank Walworth, do 

R. D. Palmatier, Waterford, N. Y. Nathan A. Wells, Pittsfield, 111. 

Stephen T. Burt, Northumberland, N.Y. John Dunham, do 

Killian D. Winney, do John H. Dunham, do 

Hurlaud Baker, Mechanicsville, N. Y. George McCreedy, Cohoes, N. Y. 

Mantou Marble, New York city, N. Y. Henry McCreedy, do 

John Austin Stevens, do William A. Dunn, Stillwater, N. Y. 

John A. Bryan, do Judson Ostrander, do 



SCHUYLERVILLE. 



358 



David Brisbin, Fort Edward, N. Y. 
(Jlia's Nfilson, Kctchun 
E. H. Mann, BalLslon t? 
George Dunn, do 



Oliver Brisbin, 
George St rover, 
James H. Dillingham, 
Samuel St. John, 
Gorden Van Valkenbur^ 
Charles Van Valkenburs 
David Crane, 
William H. McCreedy, 
Peter G. Gillett, 
Marcus Carey, 
Alanson Welch, 



Lorenzo D. Welch, Schuylerville, N. Y. 



I's Corners, 


N.Y. Nathan Welch, 


do 


pa. 


- Dudley Welch, 


do 




P. Curtis, 


do 


•viUc, N. Y, 


C. Curtis, 


do 


do 


George McCreedy, 


do 


do 


William McCreedy, 


do 


do 


John JlcCreedy, 


do 


do 


Samuel McCreedy, 


do 


h, do 


V. W. Ostrander, 


do 


;h, do 


W. S. Ostrander, 


do 


do 


Cornelius B. Winne. 


do 


do 


Valorus Winne, 


do 


do 


S. H. Winne, 


do 


do 


Douw F. Winne, 


do 


do 


Seward Winne, 


do 



45 



354 Centennial Celebrations. 



APPEI^DIX 



GOVERNOR SEYMOUR'S SPEECH. 



Note A.— 1 am indebted to Edward P. De Lancet, Esq., for his kindness in 
sending to me some proof-sheets of Justice Thomas Jones' " History of New York 
during the Revolutionary War," from which I extract the following facts. It is 
startling to learn that the defeat of Burgoyne's expedition was due, not only to the 
skill of our generals and the bravery of our soldiers, but also to a strange act of 
negligence on the part of one of the English Cabinet. Until of late it was not 
clearly understood that it was a part of the plan to order Lord Howe to force his 
way up the Hudson and thus to place the Americans between the armies of Bur- 
goyne from the north, of St. Leger from the west and Lord Howe from the south. It 
seems that the order to the last-named general was written out, but that Lord 
George Germaine, through mere negligence, omitted to sign and send it. This fact is 
proved by the Earl of Shelburne, and was first given to the world in the life of that 
nobleman, published in 1875, and is stated in these words : " Among many singu- 
larities he had a particular aversion to being put out of his way on any occasion; he 
had fixed to go into Kent or Northhamptonshire at a particular hour, and to call on 
his way at his office to sign the dispatches, all of which had been settled to both of 
these generals. By some mistake those to General Howe were not fair copied, and 
upon his growing impatient at it, the office, which was a very idle one, promised to 
send it in the country after him, while they dispatched the others to General Bur- 
goyne, expecting that the others could be expedited before the packet sailed with 
the first, which, however, by some mistake, sailed without them, and the wind 
detained the vessel which was ordered to carry the rest. Hence came General Bur- 
goyne's defeat, the French declaration and the loss of thirteen colonies. It might 
appear incredible if his own secretary and the most respectable persons in office had 
not assured me of the fact ; what corroborates it is that it can be accounted for in no 
other way. It requires as much experience in business to comprehend the very 
trifling causes which have produced the greatest events, aa it does strength of 
reason to develop the greatest design." 

It is clear that Lord Howe could have gone up the Hudson with his fleet and army 
for a detachment under General Vaughn did break through the obstructions at 
West Point, and carried his fleet and men above the Highlands, from whence his 
way to Albany was unobstructed. But his forces were not sufficient to make a 
material diversion in favor of General Burgoyne. He, therefore, contented himself 
with burning Kingston, and inflicting such damage as he could to towns along the 
river. 

NoteB. — Neither in the history of our country nor in the settlements of the 
claims of the Atlantic States to the north-west territory, has due consideration been 
given to the fact that the Iroquois of New York were never by European nations 



Appendix to Governok Seymour's Speech. 355 

put down upon the same level with other Indian tribes. It was not claimed as 
aj;aiast them that the mere discovery of their lands by Entrlish or Freuoh navigators 
gave a claim to that jurisdiction wliich they asserted over other savage people. 
Their advance in civil polity was admitted ; their confederacy was recognized as a 
form of government to be respected, and in view of their prowess and conquests no 
person dared to call them subjects. On the other hand they negotiated with 
lliem as an independent power, and were careful at all times to kec]; 
repre.sentatives of their respective crowns to negotiate with their chiefs. 
When the Mohawk chieftains visited London, in the reign of Queen Anne, 
tht-y were received as royal personages. They were called Kings, and in 
this way the noted Mohawk got his title of King Hendrick. The British govern- 
ment made no claim of either property or jurisdiction by virtue of discovery, or by 
any other title save that of treaties made by the Iroquois as an independent confed- 
eracy. The alliances in peace, or the contests in war with this Indian power must 
not be confounded with the ordinary dealings with the aborigines of this continent 
by the governments of Europe or by our own. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vir- 
ginia made conflicting claims to the north-west territory, because the patents to the 
original proprietors from King James gave them the laud from the Atlantic to what 
was then called the South Sea. The western boundaries of these grants 
were made in utter ignorance of the geography of the country, and tlu-y 
merely meant that the crown made grants to the west as far as it had 
property or jurisdiction. No one ever supposed that it gave these States 
anv claims upon the Pacific coast, nor upon the lands lying west of the 
Mississippi river. At the time they were made the British government did not own 
any lands north of North Carolina and west of the Alleglianies. It did not gain any 
title until nearly an hundred years after that date, and then it gained it by virtue of 
a treaty which was inconsistent with the claims set up by these States under any 
grants made by the crown prior to the treaty. The British government expressly 
and persistently insisted in their wars and negotiations with France that their claims 
to territories west of the Alleghanies to the banks of the Mississippi were derived 
from the Iroquois, and upon its official maps it laid out the boundary of the country 
belonging to the Six Nations, and upon the same maps stated in terms that they 
gained their title from these confederated tribes. It cannot be said that the rights 
thus gained by the Crown inured to the benefit of its grantees by charters made so 
many year.-i in the past, as that would be not only a violation of the treaty by wliich 
it gained its only claim, but also of all the purposes and objects for which it was 
made. These were to form a lirm alliance for the mutual benefit of both parties in 
making war against their common enemies, the French. If any of the States 
had a claim to the north-west territory at the time of the adoption of the Con- 
stitution of our Union it was New York, as that territory was held by right 
of conquest by the Iroquois, who lived in this State. In fact the north-west 
territory belonged to the government of the United States as it succeeded 
to the rights of the Crown. The title of property in certain districts yielded 
to Massachusets and Connecticut was given as a compromise of a claim, not 
as a concession of a right. The claim made by Great Britain through the Six Nations 
to the country lying lietween the .Mleghanies and the Mississippi river, is of historic 
interest, as it shows the power of their confederacy and the important part they 
played for nearly two centuries from the first settlement by the whites to the close 
of the revolutionary war. Another striking fact proves that the Iroquois, 
during their wars, and in their distant expeditions against their enemies 
in the Carolinas, on the banks of the Mississippi, or north of the Great 
Lakes, or against the tribes of Nova Scotia and New England, gained a 



356 Centennial Celebrations. 

physical as well as a military superiority over their opponents. While 
the Indians who once lived in most of the older States have been nearly extir- 
pated by the usages and the influence of the whites, those in New York have in- 
creased in numbers since the revolution, and although that increase has not been 
great, every census return shows that it has been constant. 



([hcvxxi ^ixUcxji. 



THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE. 



Celebeatio^ of the Unveilii^g of the 
CHEEiiY Yallet Monument, 

AUGUST 15, 1877. 



For tlie description of the proceedings at Clierry Valley, we are 
indebted to the folio >ving report of the Cherry Valley Gazette : 

The lotli of August was a marked day in tlie calendar of Cherry 
Valley ; not from the nuniljer who were present, though it was great ; 
nor from tlie character of the guests, though many of them were dis- 
tinguished ; but from the fact tiiat it was tlie day set apart for the final 
act of a duty tliat three generations of men had iieglected to perform. 

In the early morn bootlis in process of erection, and strangers look- 
ing for the owners of vacant lots, clearly showed that the sacred duties 
of the day were not to be wholly separated from business. Before 
nine o'clock every road leading to the village was thronged with vehi- 
cles. At twelve there was hardly standing room in the principal 
streets. The procession was formed jjromptly at one o'clock p. Ji., 
imder the direction of the Marshal, Capt. John E. Hetherington, 
aided by the Assistant Marshals, Lieut. H. H. Bkowxe, Col. A. L. 
Swan, Capt J. D. Clyde, J. AV. Baenum, Esq., Capt. Harrison Van 
HoRNE and Lieut. J. L. Caslek, and marching around the square pro- 
ceeded inimodiatcly to the cemetery. 

The jMoiiument is eight feet high, seven long and five wide. The 
base is granite. This is sni'iuounted by the finest American marble. 
The weight of the Monument, apart from the foundation, is about 
twenty tons. It stands directly over the trench, wherein were depos- 
ited the remains of those who fell in the Massacre. On the four sides 
are found tlie words, Cherry Valley, Oriskany, Fkontenac and 

UURLAGH. 



360 Centennial Celebrations. 

The obverse contains the inscription, 

Sacred to the Memory 

OP THOSE WHO Fell by Massacre, in the Devastation 

OP this Village at the Hands op the Tories and 

Indians under Brant and Butler, 

November 11th, A. D. 1778. 

On the reverse are the following names of the victims of tlie Mas- 
sacre and of those who fell in battle. 

Col. Ickabod Alden and fourteen Massachusetts soldiers, the wife of iRev. Sam- 
uel Dunlop, Robert AVells, wife and four children, John Wells, Jane AVells and 
three servants, William Gallt, Mrs. Elizabeth Dickson, Mrs. Eleanor Cannon, wife 
and four children of Hugh Mitchell ; also Lieutenant Robert Campbell, who fell 
at OriskaH}'; Lieutenant Wormwood, shot by Brant at Tekaharawa; Captain Rob- 
ert McKean and his men. 

On panels flanking the above sides, are f onnd the following : 

Vimis Conditus 1740. Vastatus per Ccedem 1778. 

Libertas Asserta 1775. Virtus Decofata 1878. 



THE EXEECISES. 

Upon assembling at the appointed place, the following Ode prepared 
expressly for the occasion by J. L. Sawyer, was snng by the Choir : 

Memorial Ode. 

O haste, men of strength, the savages are near you ; 

Now hurry to the fort, taking with you those you love. 

For tomahawk and scalping knife, give token of a deadly strife, 

In which deliverance only comes from above. 

O mourn, men of strength, your household Gods have fallen, 
Your valley now is wasted by bloody Butler's band. 
Yet pause not in useless grief, in fell battle seek relief, 
And vengeance earnest take, with red right hand. 

' Rejoice, men of strength, send forth the joyful tidings, 
Your victory proclaim to the peoples far and wide; 

Our armies brave have won the day, nor British power their might can stay, 
As firmly now they stand on freedom's side. 

O shout, men of strength, dechire aloud our glory; 

Afar among tlie nations, make the broad welkin ring. 

Afar, afar, o'er hill and dale, that all may hear the wondrous tale, 

America, America, is king. 



CiiEHuv Valley. 361 

After an address of welcome by Hon. Chaklks McLean, IIuii. 
IIoEATio Seymour spoke as follows : 

At the request of the committee of arrnngements I will say a few words, before 
the monument is unveiled, and the delivery of the address of Mr. Campbell. 
To-day the past speaks to us, the dead teaeh us lessons in heroism, and the mould- 
ering bones under this monument send out living influences which quicken our 
patriotism and virtues. In this grave-yard the pale, upturned faces of the recent 
dead warn us how short is human life, while the ceremonies of the day which 
recall the events which took place on this spot one hundred years ago tell us how 
men's acts live and teach for good or evil long after their bodies have changed to 
dust. A century has rolled away since men and women were murdered here 
because thej* held for their country's rights and freedom ; and when another cen- 
tury has passed and many changes have been made in all around us, and many 
questions which now excite us shall have faded out of men's memories, the story 
of this spot, of the Indians' yells of triumph, of women's shrieks of agony, and 
of brave men's silent struggles in death will live as clear in history as at this hour; 
so lasting are men's good brave deeds, so fleeting are their lives. 

When we have heard from tlie speaker of the day the details of the sad drama 
■which was enacted here, when we learn why men suffered cruel deaths, when we 
trace the influence of such patriotism as theirs upon the destinies of our country, 
we shall leave this ground better and braver men : more ready to save our country 
at all sacrifices; with more courage to grapple with present doubts and dangers, 
and with more loyal faith in tlie future glory and greatness of our Union. 

The teachings of the grave have lifted men and nations up to lofty acts of duty 
and self-sacrifice. We meet here not so much to speak of the dead, as to let the 
dead speak to us, and thus to keep alive that love of country which made them 
to suffer for its cause. We meet to get lessons of courage and patriotism, 
which the tide of the world's concerns are apt to efface. And these lessons will 
sink deep into our minds when they are softened by the scenes and memories 
which cluster about this spot. It is right, then, that we honor the dead, and lift 
ourselves into higher and nobler frames of mind than those which grow out of 
the usual duties of life. 

The full value and influence of events in the histories of nations are not seen at 
the time of their occuiTcnce. The lapse of years must show these in their full 
proportions. Some which seem fraught with momentous results fade out of his- 
tory as they prove fruitle.ss; others, like rivulets from the mountain sides, swell in 
their courses into mighty streams. Of this nature were the wars of this region 
during the long contest between Rritain and France for the control of the terri- 
tories of this continent; for the first settlers of Cherry Valley and of this section 
of the State of New York, suffered from savage warfare in the French as well as 
the revolutionary contest. 

Their settlements, buried m the deep forests which then burthened the land, 
were out of the pale of that civilization which bordered the Atlantic coast. East 
of the .\llogheny mountains the story of their bravery, their trials and patriotism 
was but little known to older communities, and was over.<;hadowed in flie pages of 
history by writers .who told only of events in their own part of the country. The 
great controlling features of our continent were not seen then as now, and what 
was inflicted or suffered here received but little notice. But as time wore on it 
was seen that the hardy men who first took possession of these hills and valleys 
46 • 



362 Centennial Celebrations. 

were the keepers of the gateways into our country, and of the strongholds which 
overliung and guarded tliem. We have learned that those who held the jJasses of 
the Hudson and the Mohawk, and the hills which guard them, became the mas- 
ters of the interior of our continent, by arms in war, by commerce in peace. Tlie 
Indian tribes, who lived upon this range of highlands, lield in awe or subjection 
the vast region lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, the great lakes and 
the center of North Carolina. Here for nearly an hundred years France and 
Britain struggled for domination, and the great question, if the civilization of 
North America should be French or English in its aspects, was ended when 
British Americans gained control of the western slope of the Alleghenies. When 
we battled for independence in the revolutionary war, we gained the victory 
when St. Leger was defeated at Fort Stanwix and Burgoyne surrendered at Sara- 
toga. In peace, these great pathways made our State the first in commerce. In 
the light of these events, we learn the full significance of the border wars of this 
region. For this reason the event we commemorate grows in public interest as 
we see its relations to the gxand results to which I have alluded. The interest 
and dignity of this occasion is felt when we bear in mind that time in its course 
has shown that the events on this spot should be marked by an enduring monu- 
ment. It was a duty not only to the dead, but to the living, that this memorial 
of the past should be placed here. 

Monuments not only tell of the virtues of the dead but they show the character 
of tlie living and mark the civilization of a people. Thej' prove how far they 
honor patriotism. Roman and Grecian monuments in enduring stone have for 
many centiu'ies been silent but potent teachers of courage and of devotion to 
the public welfare. During the dark ages they were like lighted candles in the 
general gloom. Even now if their time-worn remains were swept away the world 
would feel the loss of objects which remind us of the heroic ages of the past. 
Westminster Abbey not only teaches the merits of tlrose whose ashes are deposited 
there, but it shows how the English heart responds to their claims upon public grati- 
tude, and how it kindles the fires of ambition to serve the empire with honor. 
The destruction of this temple of the dead would be a heavier blow to British 
glory than the loss of many battles. A people who do not honor their fathers will 
never rise to the highest planes of national virtue nor civilization. 

For these reasons we mourn the want of monuments in New York, which would 
show that its citizens have a just sense of the value of the great and varied events 
in its history. This dishonors not the dead but the living. Alas for our State 
that its events, the most varied and far reaching of our country, are allowed to 
fall into oblivion or are but little known and cared for by its citizens. Alas for 
the dwellers in the valley of the Mohawk ; the graves of their fathers are unmarked 
and its history, surpassing in dramatic interest the inventions of romance, is 
fading out from the memories of those who enjoy the fruits of their toils and 
sufferings. If monuments kept alive the story of the hardships endured by their 
ancestors and their loyal faith in the darkest hour, we should have more manhood 
now in dealing with the passing troubles of our day and would cherish brighter 
hopes of the future of our Union. 

I stand here to-day not only to show my reverence for the dead, but my grati- 
tude to the living, who have put up this memorial stone. I trust their example 
will be followed and that the report of this day's ceremonies will shame others 
into like acts of patriotic duty. 

When this monument is unveiled let us reverently uncover our heads and show 



CuEKIiY \'.VLLi:V. 3G3 

tlint tluTe is a response in our hearts to tin; sturdy patriotism of those who sleep 
bcneatli it; that we are iiuule strong by their grand faith amid trials and suffer- 
ings; and that tlie blood of innocent children, of wives and mothers and of 
brave men, was not shed in vain, and t}iat an hundred years liave added to the 
value of the costly sacrifice. Tlieu we shall leave this ground hotter men, with 
higher, nobler jjurposcs of life than animated us when we entered the inclosures 
of this domain of the dead. 

A poem by J. C. Johnston of Boston was tlien road, and Major 
Douglass Cuiipbell delivered the following address : 



ADDEESS OF MAJOE DOUGLASS CAMPBELL. 

I am very glad that we have met to-day to unveil a monument, and not to lay 
its corner-stone. The country is dotted all over with the corner-stones of preten- 
tious structures, which, judging from the history of the past, will never be com- 
pleted. You, with what I think is greater wisdom, have built your modest monu- 
ment and deferred all ceremonies until its actual completion. 

Thirty-eight years ago, this little valley was filled with a multitude gathered 
from all quarters of tlie Union to celebrate the centennial of the settlement of 
Cherry Valley. William H. Seward, then the Governor of the State, and who 
since has died full of years and honors, graced the scene with his presence and 
added to its interest by one of his eloquent speeches. There was also present the 
Rev. Doctor Nott, who began his career as a minister in this hamlet, and who 
afterward, as president of Union College, placed the stamp of his character upon 
the minds of more than two generations of the leading men of the United States. 
The chief address upon tliat occasion was delivered by a native-born son of 
Cherry Valley, who years before had gathered up the scattered documents and 
vanishing traditions relating to its history, and woven them into a permanent 
record. Speaking of the event which we (commemorate, he expressed regret that 
this place was not marked by a fitting monument. To-day he has his wish. The 
intervening years have brought to him many joys and honors, but I question 
whether they have borne a more gratifying moment than the present. 

We have come together, not to celebrate a victory, but to commemorate a 
tragedy — a tragedy which blotted from existence the settlement in this valley, 
and gave back its fields and forests to the wolf and red man. If this were all of 
the story, we might feel a pang of soitow, even after a hundred years, as we 
thought of the desolation of those early settlers, but history would .scarcely have 
noticed the event. .\11 over the land, from Maine to California, houses have been 
burned, farms have been ravished, and hamlets have been blotted out by the 
destroying savage. From the first advent of the white man to these shores, such 
tragedies have formed tin; sad refrain of our frontier annals. The greed of the 
Eiiropeaii, his disregard of justice, and even of plighted faith, his wild rioting in 
unbriilli'd power, have brought upon liim at times the vengeance of a race whose 
warriors lioast as trophies the scalps of women and helpless babes. Trace back 
the colonial history of the country, and we find the same record which the West 
presents to-day, where the plundered, half-starved wards of the nation, when 
they can bear no more, break out in the frenzy of despair. 



364 Centennial Celebrations. 

The Puritans of New England applied to the red man all the prophecies and 
imprecations which the Old Testament launched against the heathen. They 
stripped them of their lands as remorselessly as the chosen people spoiled the 
Egyptians, they smote them hip and thigh as relentlessly as their prototypes had 
smitten tlie Philistines. If in the course of such a history, the heathen retaliated 
and burned a village, a monument upon that spot would only perpetuate the mem- 
ory of a gigantic wrong. In our own colony, the early record was but little dif- 
ferent. At times, under the Dutch rule, the outlying settlements were plundered, 
and once, even Manhattan Island was almost made a waste. But follow the upris- 
ing of the Indians to its origin, and there was always back of it the crime of the 
dishonest or the outrage of the fiendish white man. 

But the massacre at Cherry Valley was of no such character as this. It was not 
bred from injustice or outrage to the Indian. It was an outgrowth of the Revolu- 
tion, pure and simple. It was but one, although the most marked, of a series of 
tragedies in which the people of Central New York sealed in blood their devotion 
to the cause of human liberty. It has been overshadowed by the massacre at 
Wyoming, which occurred a few months earlier, but even these two events were 
much dissimilar. Wyoming was settled by a colony from Connecticut, which, 
without right, claimed a large tract of land located within the borders of Penn- 
sylvania. Tliis alone led to a petty civil war, in which the settlement was 
destroyed three several times before the Revolution. Again, the land in dispute 
between the whites had been reserved liy the Indians for a hunting ground. It 
was claimed by them that a pretended conveyance obtained by the Connecticut 
comijany was executed only by a few unauthorized sachems, who had been plied 
with liquor. The attack upon the settlement made in July, 1778, was led by the 
hostile white claimants to the land, and was joined in by the Indians who for years 
had been complaining bitterly of the wrong done to them. 

For the massacres in Central New York, of which that at Cherry Valley was 
typical, no such provocation or pretense of one existed. Tlie lands liere had been 
purchased in good faith, the Indian title had been quieted, and there never was 
an adverse claimant. No injustice or wrong had been perpetrated upon the 
red man. On the contrary the most friendly relations existed between the races; 
and among the inhabitants of this valley. Brant, the Mohawk chief, numbered 
some of his dearest friends. 

It is this peculiar character of the event which we commemorate to-day wnich 
gives to it historic interest.' It illustrated a phase of the Revolutionary struggle 
which was almost unknown outside of Central New York, which is little under- 
stood, but without which the Iiistory of that great conflict is very incomplete. 

To comprehend the whole bearing of the story, two considerations must be 
kept in view — the geography of the country and the character of its inhabit- 
ants. 

Look at the map of the thirteen colonies, and you will see that New York is 
fitted to its place like the keystone of an arch ; at the lower angle it touches the 
ocean, while its northern frontier stretches along the St. Lawrence and the lakes, 
nor is this all. Remember that Canada was always hostile, and see how the set- 
tlements of New England were protected by an almost impenetrable forest, while 
the Colonies to the south and west had New York between them and the foe. 
But look again at the map, and you will discover something of more importance 
in New York's history. On the east you vriW see the waters of Lake Champlain 
which flow to Canada, almost mingling with the head-waters of the Hudson, 



Cherry Valley. 365 

which empties into tlie Atlantic, wliilc the Mohawk cuts the triangle east and west. 
Now recall the fact that the colonics had no great highways but the lakes and 
rivers, and you will appreciate New York's position. Nature gave her the key to 
the American continent, and almost from her earliest infancy hostile nations were 
striving for its mastery. Following this view of the geographical situation a lit- 
tle more in detail, we shall see the paramount importance of Central New York in 
Colonial history and tlie Revolutionary struggle. Trace up the Jlohawk to its 
source, and we find its waters almost confused with the streams which run north- 
ward into the lakes. Step over the narrow range of hills which bound the 
Mohawk on the south, and we come to the great water-shed of the country, on 
whose slope the streams arise wliich make up the Delaware, the Susquehanna flow- 
ing into Chesapeake Bay, and the Ohio which empties into the Mississippi, and 
thence into the gulf of ^Mexico. 

To this natural configuration of central New York is largely due the predominance 
of the Five Nations whose long house stretched along the Mohawk. When the Euro- 
peans landed in America, they found this powerful confederacy of the native 
tribes acknowledged as conquerors from the great lakes to Georgia, and from the 
Atlantic to the Jlississippi. Other tribes were hemmed in by mountains, or by 
boundless barren wastes, but no such barriers impeded their conquests. Launch- 
ing their light canoes on the streams which flowed from their hunting grounds as 
from a mighty fountain, in time of need they could hurl an overwhelming force 
upon almost any foe. By nature, the bravest and most relentless of the Indians, 
a long career of conquest had intensified their native traits. Sage in counsel, wily 
in diplomacy, and fearless in battle, they have well been called the Romans of 
Ajnerica. The English recognized their prowess, and in very early days made 
■with them treaties of alliance ; not as conquered tribes but as sovereign nations 
they acknowledged the kings of England as their superior lords. It was through 
their conquests that the English claimed a title to the vast territory in the West, 
which years later was successfully enforced against the pretensions of the French. 

Remarkable as was New York's geographical position, still more peculiar was 
the character of her population. In this she diSered from all her neighbors ; they, 
for the most part, were settled by a homogeneous people, but New York was 
always cosmopolitan. 

First in time stand the Dutch — heroic men, who came in an heroic age. We 
never can over-estimate their influence in the history of American liberty. Their 
New England neighbors sometimes sneered at the Dutchmen ; but Motley, a New 
England historian, has taught the whole world to do them honor. Defeating in 
the open field the trained legions of Spain, the great military power of Europe ; 
biulding up a navy which made them masters of the sea; establishing the first 
great republics; taking as their motto. Taxation only by Consent; and enforcing 
the doctrine of universal religious toleration, they were fit men to lay the founda- 
tions of the Empire State. Mingling with them came French Huguenots, men 
who chanted psalms as they went into the battle of Ivry with Henry of Navarre, 
■ who, driven from France, blighted by their absence the country which they left. 
These, with accessions from the more liberal thinkers of New England, made up 
the population of the eastern and lower portion of the province. 

But it is in the people of Central New York that we to-day are chiefly inter- 
ested. And here we encounter two other races that have left deep impressions on 
the world's history — the Germans and the Scotch-Irish. 

Late in the seventeenth century, Louis XIV, seeking universal dominion. 



366 Centennial Celebrations. 

invaded Germany. The Rhenish Palatinate, whose inliabitants were mostly 
Protestants, was swept over by his armies as with a tempest of fire. Prosperous 
towns and thriving cities were blotted out, and whole districts made a desolation. 
Tlie homeless people, nearly naked in the depth of winter, were set adiift and 
scattered to the four quarters of the earth. Large numbers of them took refuge 
in England. Thence, in 1710, about three thousand emigrated to New York. 
They had been promised aid by the government in their settlements, but these 
jiromises were mostly broken. Left to shift for themselves, many went to Penn- 
sylvania; but the rest, making their way into the interior, settled along the 
Schoharie Creek and on the upper waters of the Mohawk. They were an indus- 
trious, active, prudent people ; among them were men of learning and capacity, 
and when the Revolutionary struggle came, they were surpassed by none in devo- 
tion to the cause of liberty. 

Thus far, every settlement made in New York, except those upon Long Island, 
had crept along some navigable stream of water. Now a new departure was to 
be taken, by pushing across the range of hills which bounds the Mohawk on the 
south. This was reserved for a race perhaps the most remarkable of all the pioneer 
settlers of America. I refer to the Scotch-Irish, who have given to this country 
John Stark, Robert Fulton, James K. Polk, Sam. Houston, Horace Greeley, John 
C. Calhoun, and Andrew Jackson. "World conquering," they have well been 
called; certainly, when they plunged into this wilderness, they needed all the 
energy and nerve which have made the blood so famous. 

In 1738, Lieutenant-Governor George Clarke made a grant of about eight thou- 
sand acres of land in this section to four gentlemen, one of whom was probably 
his own representative, as was customary among officials in those simple days. 
Shortly after, three of the grantees assigned their interest to John Lindesay, one 
of their number, and the Lieutenant-Governor. In 1739, the patent was surveyed 
and divided, Clarke receiving his portion, part of which his descendants own 
to-day. 

To the white man this whole region was then an unbroken wilderness ; but to 
the Indian it was familiar ground. The Five Nations, which, by tlie accession of 
the Tuscaroras, had now become the Six Nations, had a colony at Oquago, on the 
Susquehanna, in the present county of Broome. To reach that place from the 
Mohawk, they came through this valley, struck the Cherry Valley Creek, and 
thence in their canoes could float down the Susquehanna. 

Mr. Lindesay, who was a Scotch gentleman of some distinction in the colony, 
attracted doubtless by the beauty of the scenery, concluded to take up his resi- 
dence upon this spot. He selected for a farm a tract of land just below the pres- 
ent village, now occupied by Mr. Joseph Phelon. There with his family he 
passed the ensuing Avinter. The season proved severe, even for this climate ; the 
snow fell to a great deptli ; their provisions gave out, and starvation stared them 
in the face. Haply they had cultivated the friendship of the natives, and at the 
critical moment, an Indian appeared upon the scene, probably passing from 
Oquago to the Mohawk. Learning the condition of affairs, he hastened on his 
snow-shoes to the river settlements, and thence bore, on his back, food for the 
helpless pioneers. Tluis here, as elsewhere, did the savage welcome the European 
with acts of kindness; and I am glad to say that here the kindness was repaid by 
gratitude and justice. 

The experience of this winter almost discouraged Mr. Lindesay, but the next 
year he was cheered by the arrival of about thirty Scotch-Irish settlers, from Lon- 



Cherry Valley. 367 

donderry, in New Hampshire, led by the Rev. Samuel Dunlop, a Presbyterian 
elcryynian and a graduate of Trinity College, in Dublin. From that moment the 
successor the little colony was as.sured. The men who had left their homes for 
religion's .sake were not to be daunted by hardshij); they who had passed through 
the siege of Londonderry were to be affrighted by no dangers. Their first step 
WHS to build a church in which to worship God ; next tlieir leader opened a classi- 
cal school for the education of their rhildren. Thus the valley was dedicated to 
Religion, and her hand maid, liberal education. This was the first church west 
of the Hudson in which there was preaching in the English language, and the 
first classical school of central or western Xew York. 

Down to the outbreak of the French and Indian war in 1755, the settlement 
had gi-own but little, yet it had more than held its own. That conflict, which 
proved the training school for the war of Independence, threatened it with anni- 
hilation. A part of the Six Nations, composed of the more western tribes, proved 
unfaithful to their English allies, and hovered over the frontier like a dreadful 
portent of ruin. At one time it seemed as if Cherry Valley must be abandoned 
till the return of peace, but the erection of some rude fortifications and the sta- 
tioning of a company of rangers in the place averted the necessity. Yet, even at 
this period, with the torch lighted for the destruction of their homes, and the 
tomahawk sharpened for tlieir wives and cliildren, these brave pioneers turned 
out for distant fields of service. In the famous campaign of 1757, a number of 
them were in the provincial army commanded by Sir William Johnson, at Fort 
Edward. Even after the Revolution the sui-vivoi-s of these veterans could hardly 
restrain their tears as they told of the massacre at Fort William Henry, caused by 
the cowardice of the regular English commander, wlio forbade John.sou and his 
militia from marching to the relief of their beleaguered comrades. 

By the termination of the war which gave to Great Britain the whole continent 
to the banks of the Mississippi, the infant settlement felt relieved from danger. 
Thenceforth its increase was more rapid, but as compared with the magic growth 
of towns and States to which we are accustomed in modern days, it was yet ex- 
tremely slow. The whole section south of the Mohawk was almost a wilderness. 
The hills were rugged, the winters long and bitter, and the soil not so inviting as 
that along the Mohawk and the Hudson. Still, by its streams rich bottom lands 
were found, and as the creepers of a climbing jjlant hidden in the knotted bark 
of some great forest tree, noiselessly ascend its trunk, jiutting forth here and there 
a bunch of leaves, a blossom or a bud, so this plant of civilization gave signs of 
life by sending out its shoots. Down the creek which rises here within the sound 
of my voice, and forms the chief branch of the Susquehanna, the settlers took 
their way, planting a little colony at Otego, another at Sydney Plains near Una- 
dilla, and following up a tributary stream founding the beautiful village of Lau- 
rens. Still furtlier down, and on Charlotte Creek, the eastern branch of the Sus- 
qviehanna, the renowned Harjiers from Cherry Valley planted the settlement of 
Hariiersfield. Across the hills to the west, Springfield was founded at the head 
of Otsego lake, and to the south-west Newtown ^Martin, which we now call Mid- 
dlefield. In the other direction toward the north they made a little settlement 
at Bowman's Creek, half way down th(^ hills to the Mohawk. Over on the ea.st, 
but a few miles distant, the sturdy Germans had cviltivated the valleys of the 
Schoharie, and of the Cobleskill, while the Mohawk, as far \ip as the present village 
of Herkimer, was alive ^\•ith an active, industrious, thriving people. These settle- 
ments formed central and western New York, at the outbreak of the revolution. 



368 Centennial Celebrations. 

To-day this portion of the State contains avast population; but we are not to im- 
agine that it bore any such appearance a hundred years ago. Cherry Valley, which 
was the centre and parent of the settlements along tlie Susquehanna, contained only 
about three hundred inhabitants. The others were much smaller, some of them being 
composed of only a few scattered families. In 1773 the county of Tryon was 
carved out of the old county of Albany. It embraced all that part of the State 
lying west of a line drawn north and south nearly through the centre of the pres- 
ent county of Schoharie. Its entire population was estimated at ten thousand, of 
whom not more than twenty five hundred could have been capable of bearing 
arms. Now remember that the Six Nations alone, who lived around and among 
these people, numbered over two thousand brave and skillful wai-riors, while in 
the whole department there were over twenty-five thousand savages trained to 
the use of arms, and you will gain a faint idea of what it meant when the yeomen 
of Central New York espoused the cause of liberty. 

From the close of the French and Indian war, Indian outbreaks in New York 
had been a thing unknown. The policy adopted by the English, after the con- 
quest of the province in 1664, was intended to secure this result, but as the colony 
grew in numbers and pushed itself out on every side, it is questionable whether it 
could have been accomplished, save for the genius of one man, and that man 
deserves here more than a passing notice . 

Early in the last century Sir Peter Warren, an English admiral, who married 
the sister of James DeLancey, Chief Justice of the province, purchased a large 
tract of land in the Mohawk Valley, about twenty miles west of Schenectady. 
To superintend its settlement and sale, he sent to Ireland for one of his nephews, 
William Johnson, a young man of. twenty-three years of age. This youth settled 
upon his uncle's tract. He opened a store and traded with the natives. He pur- 
chased land in his own name, and soon acquired a fortune. Broad-shouldered 
and athletic, fond of wild sports, inflexibly honest, and truthful to a proverb, the 
Indians soon came to love him as a brother. The government recognized his 
ability, made him superintendent of Indian affairs, commander of the frontier 
militia, and a baronet of Great Britain. 

His history reads like a romance. Tliere is nothing like it in the Colonial annals. 
A scholar, understanding French and Latin, sending to Europe for rare engrav- 
ings and the latest works on science, we find him at times dressed in Indian cos- 
tume parading among the dusky warriors like a native chief. In the broad halls 
of his noble mansion on the Mohawk, the Six Nations were always welcome guests. 
They felt at home, for Sir William could converse with them in their native 
tongue. There they would sometimes gather in hundreds, and although sur- 
rounded by unguarded stores of what to them were treasures of untold value, 
theu' host never lost the value of a farthing. In all their controversies with indi- 
viduals or the government he protected his Indian wards, as in ancient Roman 
days the tribunes stood between the people and the oppression of the nobles. If 
any thing more was needed to raise him in their estimation, it was found in the 
connection which he formed -with Molly Brant, the sister of the great Mohawk 
chieftain who has written his name in blood and fire all over the valleys of Cen- 
tral New York. 

The influence of Sir William Johnson, over the Indian tribes was almost un- 
bounded ; among the Six Nations, in particular, his word was law. Added to 
the weiglit of his private character was the fact, that, as superintendent of Indian 
affairs, he represented to them the sovereignty of Great Britain. Annually he 



Cherry Valley. 369 

distributed the presents wliicli the mother country witli sagacious liberality lav- 
ished upon her savage allies. Nor was his influence confined to the native tribes. 
He was hardly less powerful among the whites. In 17(>4 he founded the village 
of .Johnstown, erected, tliere a baronial mansion, and gathcreil about him a colony 
of Catholic Scotch Highlanders. Other settlers flocked in, and when Tryon 
county was created in 1772, his town became the county seat. He married in 
early life a daughter of one of the Germans in the Mohawk Valley, and his rela- 
tions with tliese people were always intimately friendly. The whole population 
looked up to him as a leader, consulted him on all important affairs, and never 
found their confidence misplaced. 

Such were the character and position of Sir William .lohnson. No man in 
America equaled him in influence; no one except the proprietor of Pennsylvania 
was the owner of such vast estates. Had he lived, the history of Central New 
York might have been very different, for it is questionable whether he would have 
unloosed the savage hordes about him upon the friends of his youth and man- 
hood. But in .Tuly, 1774, just as the conflict opened, this great man died. His 
title and estates descended to his son Sir .John Johnson, the superintendency of 
Indian affairs fell upon his nephew and son-in-law. Colonel Guy Johnson, both of 
whom were verj' different characters from the man whom they succeeded. The 
old baronet had made his ow-n fortune, had grown up with the valley, and sym- 
pathized with the settlers about him; the young men were bred to wealth and 
lu.xury, and looked down on poverty and toil. The old man, though made a Brit- 
ish baronet, never forgot his youth, and is said to have keenly felt the wrongs of 
his adopted country ; the young men w-ere scions of the aristocracy, and felt only 
the wrongs of their own order. Sir "William was the benefactor of his valley; his 
son and nephew became its scourges, and their names have been pilloried in his- 
tory. 

Neither of the young men who now came upon the stage possessed the ability 
or the influence of the man whose loss the whole colony deplored. Yet tliey 
were active and untiring, and from their wealth and position wielded a power only 
second to that of their predecessor. Col. Guy Johnson had been selected by his 
uncle to succeed him as superintendent, and took the position with all the pres- 
tige of a mighty name and the warm gratitude of the Indian tribes. Sir .John 
was a man of less ability, but the Tories of the valley, who were rich and power- 
ful, looked up to him as their natural leader. 

Such was the position of affairs in July, 1774. The month previous the Boston 
Port Bill went into operation. The friends of liberty in New York City had sug- 
gested a Continental Congress. Already the storm of approaching war was visi- 
ble around the whole horizon. Men less brave than the settlers of Tryon county 
might well have hesitated as they looked into the future. At Johnstown, barring 
their cotomunication with the eastern portion of the province, lay sir John and 
Colonel Guy John.son, with five hundred Roman Catholic Scotch Highlanders, 
Tories to tlic core ; all along their northern frontier stretched Canada, whose loy- 
alty to England was never doubted. Water comminiication on the cast and on 
the west laid them open to the incursions of the foe, while in their midst dwelt an 
enemy of equal numbers with their own, whose weapons of war were the torch, 
the tomahawk and scalping knife. 

But these men never faltered. In August, 1774, they held a large meeting at 
Palatine to express their sympathy with the Bostonians, and their concurrence in 
the plan of a Continental Congress. The resolutions put forth on that occasion 
47 



370 Centennial Celebrations. 

are worthy to stand witli any adopted in the thirteen colonies. We are loyal to 
King George, they say, but we insist upon our rights as English subjects, which 
are so sacred that we cannot permit their violation. We can be taxed only with 
our own consent; any other method is unjust and unconstitutional. They 
pledged themselves to unite with then- brethren in the rest of the colony in any 
thing tending to suppoi't their rights and liberties, and engaged faithfully to abide 
by the conclusions of the approaching Congress. Early in the spring of 1775, the 
Tories at Johnstown drew up and circulated an address avowing their opposition 
to the measures adopted at Philadelphia. At once meetings were called all 
through the county to protest against this action, and one of the largest and most 
enthusiastic was held in Cherry Valley. Ou the appointed day the village church 
was tilled -ndth the patriotic people. Even the little children were taken by their 
parents that they might be baptized with the air of freedom. At this and similar 
gatherings, articles of association were subscribed denouncing the proceedings at 
Johnstown, and pledging the subscribers to the support of Congress. A few 
days afterward the Palatine committee wrote a letter to the committee of Albany, 
describing the peculiar condition of affairs in Tryon county, asking that no 
ammunition should be sent there unless consigned to them or persons whom they 
should name, and concluding with the words, "It is our fixed resolution to be 
free or die." These were high sounding but not empty words. With their lives, 
the men who wrote them redeemed their promises. 

Meantime the Johnsons were foi'tifyiug their homes along the Mohawk. Still 
no act of violence was committed by their partisans, and the friends of liberty 
tliought it advisable not to precipitate a conflict. The Indians had not risen, and 
Colonel Guy Johnson, the new Superintendent, declared liis purpose to maintain 
their neutrality if possible. Indignantly he disclaimed the idea that he could be 
eapable of setting the savages on his peaceful neighbors; and yet while the 
words were upon his lying lips, he had received secret instructions from the 
crown to induce the Six Nations to take up the hatchet against the king's rebel- 
lious subjects. Few things in history equal the infamy of these instructions, 
which we now know emanated directly from King George the Third. In tlie 
French wars the case had been very different, for the French themselves always 
employed their Indian allies. But the employment of the savages by the English 
in the Revolution, while the Americans only sought to keep them neutral, has no 
excuse or palliation. 

At first Colonel Johnson made little headway in following out his orders. He 
called an Indian council at his residence, but felt himself so hampered by the sus- 
picious men about him, that he removed to Ontario with his whole family and 
retinue. With him there went two persons of great influence among the Indians : 
the one was Molly Brant, with her eight children by Sir William Johnson ; the 
other was her brother, the famous Joseph Brant, Thayendauegea. 

Brant was a full blooded Mohawk chief, tall, erect and princely in his move- 
ments. Educated at an English school in Connecticut, he had lived much among 
the whites, but never lost his native traits. Education, instead of enfeebling, 
only made him a more fearful foe. He possessed the self-control of the white 
man, with the endurance and the cunning of the savage. The tales of his cold- 
blooded cruelty are doubtless fictions, for he showed at times a true nobility of 
character. But in the heat of battle he was terrible. For years to come his 
name along the border almost made the boldest shudder. He seemed to bear a 
charmed life, his movements no one could divine, but his blows were as unerring 



Cherry Valley. 371 

niul asswift as fate. Tii 1770 lie was made principal war cliiof of the confederacy, 
but now lie was secretary to Colonel Guy Johnson, and in that position rendered 
eflicient services. At Ontario, another counsel was held and liis Majesty's work 
was soon accomplished. All the Six Nations, except a few Tuscaroras and about 
lialf of the Oneida tribe, pU^dgcd themselves to support the English cause. Thence, 
Col. Johnson passed into Canada, secured the services of seventeen hundred of the 
northern confederacy, and then took up his residence in Montreal. Sir John 
Johnson still remained at home, but in the next year it was determined to disarm 
the Tories in the Mohawk Vallej', and he was arrested and liberated on parole. 
Shortly after he shamelessly broke his parole, and also lied to Canada. There- 
after he only meditated vengeance on his countrymen. 

Still for sometime Tryon county suflferetl little. Many of the Six Nations had 
gone to Canada -with Col. Johnson; the more bitter royalists, among whom were 
the wealthy Butlers, had done the same, and although rumors of Indian invasions 
were heard on every side, none actually occurred. But this was felt to be only 
the calm before a storm. The Declaration of Independence had been hailed with 
great joy throughout the country, and peace it was known could now only be at- 
tained by force of arms. The inhabitants organized into companies, erected rude 
fortifications about their houses, and prepared for the approaching contest. 

In 1777 the storm broke upon Central New York. 

Thus far the colonial war for independence had been almost an unbroken series 
of disasters. Now the English government concluded to make one grand effort 
and end the struggle. New York was recognized as the key to the continent; 
could it be captured, the other, States might be mastered in detail. To effect this 
object, a campaign was planned in England with great elaboration . It was re- 
solved to send out three expeditions, one under the commander in chief, to start 
from New York and follow up the Hudson; another under Burgoyne, to march 
from the north by way of Lake Cham|ilain ; and the third under St. Leger, to 
start fi-om Oswego, and go down the Mohawk Valley. The three armies when 
their work was done, were to meet at Albanj', and the confederacy would be cut 
in twain. The scheme was well conceived, and but for the valor of Tryon county 
it might have been successful. Sir John Johnson had represented to the British 
government, that the Tories in the Mohawk Valley were in the majoritj' of five to 
one, and that it needed only the presence of some regular troops to cause a general 
iiprising. These were furnished, and they were the picked of the English army. 
With them marched Sir John Johnson, and his regiment of Tories, burning for 
revenge. Colonel Butler of the Mohawk and his Tory rangers, and the Six Nations 
led by Brant. Patiently they had bided their time, and now at length it had ar- 
rived. Had they been successful, had they swe])t down the valley with the pres- 
tige of victory, swelling their forces as they marched, and bringing to Burgoyne 
the supplies of which he was in such bitter need, no one can say that Saratoga 
would have witnessed the surrender of the British army. 

"Wlien the news went down through the Mohawk Valley that St. Leger with his 
force of British troops, Tories and Indian allies were on the march, offering a re- 
ward of twenty dollars for every American scalp, the whole people were aroused. 
On the way from Oswego and upon the site of the present City of Rome, stood 
Fort Schuyler, the old Fort Stanwix, of the French and Indian war, held by seven 
hundred and fifty continental troops, commanded by Colonel Gansevoort of 
Albany. St. Leger saw that he must take this fort or nothing would be gained. 
The delay was unexpected, for it was supposed that the place was out of repair 



372 Centennial Celebrations. 

and would fall without, a blow. "When the army encamped before it, the sum- 
mons went out to the patriots of Tryon county to hasten to its aid. At once eight 
hundred men flew to arms. They were mostly Germans, for the notice was so 
sudden that only those living in the upper Mohawk region had time to reach the 
field. But three men from the Cherry Valley settlemente joined the expedition — 
Colonel Samuel Campbell, Major Samuel Clyde, and Lieutenant Robert Campbell. 
The two former were members of the Committee of Safety of Tryon county, and 
probably were in attendance at a meeting in the valley ; the last , who lost his life 
in the subsequent engagement, lived at Bowman's Creek. 

Of the battle of Oriskany, which turned back the tide threatening the Mohawk 
Valley witli destruction, I have little time to speak. A year ago, seventy-five 
thousand people on the battle-ground listened to the story from abler lips than 
mine. They heard how the eight hundred yeomen led by Herkimer fell into an 
ambuscade . How they fought for life, and yet wrestled victory from the jaws of 
death. How, when the sun went down, St. Leger's expedition had received its 
death blow . How the Mohawk Valley was saved and Burgoyne's last hope was 
swept away. Washington said '"Herkimer first reversed the gloomy scene " of 
the campaign. General Sclmyler and General Gates praised the victors for their 
courage, and General George Clinton, just inaugurated the first Governor of New 
York, thanked them, in behalf of the new-born State. 

This is the story of the triumph, but I have another tale to tell. The battle 
saved the Mohawk Valley to the patriot cause, and I concur in all that was said a 
year ago regarding its importance, but it brought upon Tryon county for the next 
four years a storm of fire and blood, by which it was nearly blotted from existence. 
The causes of this we have not far to seek. Although the Indian tribes had 
two years before pledged themselves to support the British cause, they had thus 
far been rather lukewarm. They had many friends among the patriots, and could 
not see any advantage to themselves in a war between the whites. Brant, to be 
sure, felt otherwise, for he was a captain under English pay, but he could not carry 
the confederacy beyond a general treaty of alliance. When they joined the army 
of St. Leger, it was solely upon the promise of Sir John Johnson, that there should 
be no fighting, simply scalping and plunder vsdthout danger to themselves. But 
the battle of Oriskany changed all this. In that engagement and the sortie from 
Fort Schuyler, the Indians lost nearly a hundred of their bravest warriers. This 
loss they swore should be avenged, and fearfully they kept their oath. Again the 
Tories who had fled to Canada had waited patiently for two years, expecting the 
time to come when, with a British force, they could return, and taking possession 
of the valley re-occupying their homes. The opportunity had come, but had only 
proved tliat their hopes were false. To them, too, nothing but revenge was left. 
They swore to ruin wliere they could not rule. Among them were brave and 
noble men ; aided by Brant, whose efforts were unceasing, they now found no 
difficulty in inciting the savages to slaughter. Alone either party would have 
been comparatively harmless, united they ranged like fiends over|tlie whole of 
Tryon county. The cold-blooded atrocities perpetrated on their prisoners by the 
Tories and Indians after the battle of Oriskany gave a foretaste of the future. 
Spurred on by the whites, the savages put their unresisting captives to death with 
all the tortures that ingenuity could devise. Kot satisfied with this, it is said 
that tliey roasted the bodies and ate the flesh , 

In the autumn after the battle occurred a few scattered outrages, but in 1778 
the bloody drama opened which made Tryon county a wide waste of desolation. 



Chei:i:y Vai.i.ey. 373 

And now wi- conic to the events wliicli took place Iicrc. To both Indians and 
Tories, C'licrry Valley was an object of bitter hatred. Here resided John Moore, 
who was the delegate to the rrovincial Congress from Tryon county, and partic- 
ularly obnoxious for his earnest stand for Colonial Independence. Here also 
lived Colonel Samuel Campbell and Major Samuel Clyde, both members of the 
County Committee of Safety, and surpassed by none in patriotism, energy, and 
zeal. They were skillful Indian fighters, and had done great execution in the 
battle of Oriskany. After the fall of Herkimer, Colonel Campbell had been 
left the highest ofiicer upon the field, and at the clo.se of the engagement was in 
command of the American forces. The other residents of the town were not 
inferior to these men in love of liberty. Probably no place in the United States 
has such a Ttevolulionary record as Ihis frontier town. It numbered, as I have 
already stated, mily aliout three hundred, inhabitants, and yet in 177G, witli the 
neighhoring settlement of .Middlelield, which contained but a few scattered fami- 
lies, it furnished thirty-three soldiers to the patriot army; one out of every ten of 
its inhabitants, men, women and children. 

As the central and largest settlement south of the Mohawk river, the people of 
the surrounding country had early flocked to it for safety. A rude fortification 
had been thrown up around the walls of Colonel Campbell's residence, which 
occupied the place where his grandson's house now stands, on a side hill com- 
manding a full view of the valley. Into this primitive fortress the people had 
gathered in time of danger, and the presence of a company of rangers had thus 
far secured their safety. But in the s])ring after the battle of Oriskauy, General 
LaFayetto, who was in the Mohawk Yalley, appreciating the importance of the 
position, directed a fort to be constructed in the town. 

This fort was subsequently erected, but meantime an incident occurred, which 
lights up with a touch of humor a picture which is otherwise monotonously sad. 
Early in May, Brant had -planned a descent upon the settlement, having been 
informed tliat it was at that time without a guard of soldiers. Stealthily 
approaching through the forest with his hostile baud, he gained without detec- 
tion the summit of a hill which bounds the valley on the ea-st. Looking down 
from this height, to his utter consternation, he beheld a company of troops, 
parading on the green in front of Colonel Campbell's house. Satisfied that he 
had been deceived, he concluded to abandon his attack; when, at a later day, he 
learned the truth, even his stoic calm must have been somewhat moved. The 
doughty warriors whose appearance liad so astonished him, proved to be a com- 
pany of little boys, the children of the settlement, dressed out in paper hats and 
armed with wooden swords and guns. 

But the day which began in comedy had a tragic ending. Unable to reconcile 
the evidence of his own senses with the information which was brought to him, 
Brant passed a little to the north, and took his station near tlie beautiful Falls of 
the Tckaharawa, some two miles distant from the village. That morning. Lieu- 
tenant Wormwood, a son of a wealthy patriot of Palatine, and personally a friend 
of Brant, had come up from the Mohawk river, bringing the intelligence that 
Colonel Klock would arrive the next day with a part of his regiment of militia. 
Late in the afternoon he started to return, accomi)anied by Peter Sitz, the bearer 
of some dis))atchcs. Throwing down his portmanteau, he mounted his horse, 
saying, " I shall not need that, as I shall return to-morrow with my company." 
His to-morrow never came. A few minutes after their departure, his horse 
returned alone, the sjiddle stained witli blood. From behind a rock which stands 



374 Centennial Celebrations. 

near the romantic falls, Brant had api^eared and commanded them to halt. Dis- 
regarding the order, they had put spurs to their horses, and tried to pass. A 
shot wounded Wormwood, and as he fell Brant' rushed forward, and, mistaking 
his old friend for a Continental officer, tomahawked him mth his own hand. 
Sitz was captured, but managed to destroy the dispatches showing the true state 
of the garrison. He gave up a false set which he carried; and Brant, being now 
assured of his mistake, went on, and Cherry Valley was left in peace. 

Dm'ing the summer the fort was constructed, which had been ordered by Gen- 
eral La Fayette. It was a rude structure, built by the inhabitants themselves, 
but sufficient for frontier warfare. Located just below the present village, it 
encircled tlie church and the plot of ground used then and now as a graveyard. 
Within its walls the people stored their valuables, and themselves took refuge. 
Going out to till their fields, one party worked, wliile another stood guard with 
loaded muskets. About them the air was heavy with dreadful news. In June, 
Brant and his savages had burned the neighboring settlement of Springfield. In 
July, Colonel John Butler, with some fiendish Tories, and a band of Indians, had 
desolated the beautiful Valley of Wyoming. About the same time, a force of 
four hundred and fifty Indians invaded the Valley of the Cobleskill, and laid it 
waste. A little later McDonald, one of the Johnson royalists, with three hun- 
dred Indians and Tories, had ra^'aged the Schoharie Valley, and early in Sep- 
tember the extensive and populous settlement of the German Flatts had been 
burned by Brant. Yet Cherry Valley remained untouched, and as the autumn 
passed on the inhabitants breathed more freely, for they knew that in winter the 
Indians were rarely found upon the war-path. Some who had left the settlement 
returned and those who remained began to relax their vigilance. The move- 
ments of Brant justified their conduct. In October, feeling that his summer 
campaign was ended, he made his way toward Niagara, to go into winter quar- 
ters. Unfortunately, before he readied his post, he met the man to whom the 
Cherry Valley massacre is due. 

Just after the battle of Oriskany, Walter N. Butler, son of the Tory Colonel, 
John Butler, was arrested at the German Flatts, for endeavoring to incite a rising 
among the people in favor of tlie crown. Tried by court-martial as a spy, his 
offense was clearly proved and he was sentenced to be slrot. Unfortunately his 
life was spared through the intercession of some of his early friends, and he was 
kept a prisoner at Albany. Thence he escaped in the summer of 1778, and joined 
his father at Niagara. Panting for revenge, and emulous of the fame which his 
father had won by the massacre at Wyoming, he eagerly sought an opportunity to 
sliow that the son was not unworthy of such a sire. With these objects, although 
the season was far advanced, he planned an expedition against the settlement of 
Cherry Valley, obtained the command of two hundred of his father's Tory rang- 
ers, and permission to employ the Indians under Brant. The Mohawk chieftain, 
whom he met returning from the east, was at first reluctant to serve under such a 
leader, Init was finally persuaded to join the Tories with five hundred of his war- 
riors. The little army, thus swollen to seven hundred men, made its way through 
the lower portion of tlie State, and striking the Susquehanna, ascended its waters 
toward the doomed settlement. 

The approaching force was overwhelming, and yet the final tragedy might have 
been avoided, save for the ignorance and folly 'of one man. The fort, which 
mounted four guns, was garrisoned by an eastern regiment numbering between two 
and three hundred soldiers. It was large enough to contain all the inhabitants, 



Chekuy Valley. 375 

and would have afforded them a secure phice of refuge. On the 8th of Novem- 
ber, a messenger from Fort Schuyler brought intelligence of the hostile expedi- 
tion. At once the people begged leave to move into the fort for safety. But the 
commanding oiKcur, Colonel Icliabod Alden, of ilassachusetts, denied their 
prayer. The refusal was not due to inhumanity, for he himself lodged without 
the fort, lie was simply ignorant of Indian warfare, presumptuous, and like 
many greater men despised the savage foe whom he had never met. Promising 
the inhabitants that he would take measures to advise them of the approach of 
danger, he put out scouts in all directions. The party sent down the Susque- 
hanna, partaking of the disposition of their Colonel, on the evening of the ninth, 
kindled a fire, and lay down in peaceful sleep. Toward day -break they awoke to 
find themselves surrounded and disarmed. On the night of the tenth the enemy 
encamped on a thickly wooded hill about a mile south-west of the village. On 
the morning of the eleventh, they mo\ed from their encampment toward the 
fort. 

Colonel Aldcn and Lieutenant-Colonel Stacia, with a small guard, lodged at the 
house of Mr. Wells, which stood on a little eminence just below the village. The 
place had formerly belonged to Mr. Lindesay, and is now owned and occupied by 
Mr. Phelon. Some of the other officers also lodged in private houses. The 
enemy learning these facts from the scouts whom they had captured, disposed 
their force so that a party sliould surround the residence of each officer, while the 
main body attacked the fort. 

Even the elements combined against the hapless settlement. The night before 
snow had fallen to the depth of several inches; in the morning it turned to sleet 
and the air was dark and heavy. The people, trusting to the assurances of Col. 
Alden, were resting quietly at home, unconscious of approaching danger. One 
man only was abroad. lie lived several miles below the fort, and was coming to 
town on horseback. When a short distance from tlie house of Mr. Wells, he was 
fired upon and wounded by the Indians. Putting his horse to full speed, he 
turned out of his way to inform the Colonel of their approach, and then hastened 
to alarm the fort. Still Alden was incredulous; he thought it was but a party of 
stragglers, and sent out orders to call in the guard. Befoi-c his order could be 
obeyed, the Indians w^ere upon him. The advance was formed mainly of the 
Senecas, the most untamed and blood-thirsty of the Six Nations. Now, at length, 
the Colonel realized the danger, and fled down the hill toward the fort. Behind 
him followed a fleet-footed savage, with uplifted tomahawk. Several times Alden 
turned and snapped a pistol at his swift pursuer, but in the damp air the treach- 
erous weapon failed him. At last the fort was nearly gained, its doors stood open 
for his reception, when the Indian's tomahawk, hurled with unerring aim, cleft 
his skull. As he fell, the savage rushed upon him, knife in hand, and under the 
very muskets of the soldiers tore off his bleeding scalp. 

Meantime, at the house of ,"\Ir. Wells, a dreadful scene had been enacted. When 
the savages rushed in, the father of the family was engaged in his devotions, but 
a Tory slew him while he knelt at prayer. With him perished his wife and 
mother, three children, his brother, sister, and three domestics. One daughter, 
endeared to all by every Christian grace, escaped from the house and sought safety 
behind a pile of wood. She was pursued by an Indian, who, as he approached, 
wiped and sheathed his bloody knife and drew his tomahawk. Having some 
knowledge of the Indian language, she begged piteously for life, and a Tory who 
had formerly been a servant of her father interceded for her, claiming to be her 



37(3 Centennial Celebrations. 

brother. With one hand the savage pushed aside the Torj', and with the other 
smote her to the earth. Of this whole family, but one escaped the carnage. He 
was a young boy who was absent in Schenectady at school. Thus his life was 
spared. He grew to manhood, and settling in New York, made the name of John 
AVells famous as the foremost lawyer of his time. Looking down upon the deso- 
lation of his homestead, he might have said with Logan, " there runs not a drop of 
my blood in the veins of any li\ing creature." Like Logan, however, he was 
fitted alone to I'ejjresent a race. 

Another party of Indians surrounded the house of Mr. Dunlop, the venerable 
clergyman whose ministrations the colony had followed from its cradle. Through 
the intercession of a Mohawk chief, the old man's life was spared, but onl}' that 
he might witness the fiendish murder and mutilation of his wdfe, and the destruc- 
tion of his little flock. Carried away prisoner, he was soon released, but within 
a year went down to his grave broken with age and sorrow. 

One other incident and I have done with these sickening details. I tell them 
that you may know what border warfare meant in Tryon county ; that you may 
know what our fathers meant when they said they were " resolved to be free or 
die." A Mr. Slitchell was absent from his house when the Indians came. Find- 
ing return impossible, he fled to the woods for safety. AVhen the fiends had 
departed, he approached his home, and there a fearful sight awaited him. He 
saw before him tlie bodies of his wife and four children. Extinguishing a fire 
which had been kindled to destroy the house, he looked at his little ones, hoping 
that life might still remain. In one, a girl of ten or twelve years of age, a spark 
seemed yet to flicker ; he raised her up, brought her to the door, and with beat- 
ing heart was watching over her return to life when another party of the eiiemy 
appeared. He had hardly time to hide himself behind a log fence near by, when 
they approached the house. From his hiding place he beheld an infamous Tory, 
named Newbury, bury his hatchet in the skull of the little girl. The next day 
the desolate father all alone bore the five corpses to the churchyard, and with the 
soldier's aid, buried them in a common grave. I am glad to say, that the follow- 
ing year Newbury was arrested in the Mohawk Vallej' as a spy, convicted on the 
testimony of Mr. Mitchell, and hung as a common malefactor. 

The victims of the massacre numbered about fortj'-eight in all, sixteen of 
whom were Continental soldiers, the rest were mostly women and children. The 
fort W'as not taken for the assailants had no cannon, and Indians rarely attempt to 
carry fortifications. During the day several attacks upon it were made, but suc- 
cessfxilly repulsed. Outside of the fort, however, the wliole country was laid 
waste. Houses and barns, with all their stores, were burned, the cattle were 
driven off, and nothing but smouldering ashes marked the site of the once happy * 
settlement. From the mere list of those who lost their lives no idea can be 
gathered of the misery inflicted. Some families escaped and wandered almost 
naked to the Mohawk. Others, and these were the larger number, were taken 
prisoners, and felt themselves reserved for a fate much worse than death. 

As I have already said, three of the citizens of Cherry Valley were particularly 
obnoxious to the tories; they were John Moore, Colonel Samuel Campbell, and 
JIajor, afterwai'd Colonel Samuel Clyde. These three men all escaped, the first 
two being absent from home, the last being stationed in the fort. Their families, 
however, were considered as only second in importance to themselves, and special 
arrangements were made for their ca])ture. Fortunately the wife and children of 
Colonel Clyde escaped, and fleeing to the woods remained hidden all day and 



Cherry Valley. 377 

night under a fiiendlj- log. Tlie families of Mr. Jloore and Colonel Campbell 
were less fortunate. The former were taken without resistance. In the case of 
the latter, a fight wiis made that excited even the admiration of the savages. 
Mrs. Camiibell's husband was absent, but her father, Captain Cannon, who lived 
at Middlefield, was visiting his daughter. Ho, too, was a member of the Com- 
mittee of Safety, was an old sea captain from the north of Ireland, and never 
dreamed of surrendering without a blow. As he was all alone, except some negro 
slaves, he knew that a defense of the house would be useless, and would only 
endanger the lives of those intrusted to his care. But resolving to sell his life as 
dearly as possible he sallied forth, with a stock of muskets, and a negro boy to 
load, and took position behind a tree which stood below the house. As the sav- 
ages approached he poured into them a rapid fire, until a bullet in the leg brouglit 
him to the ground. When the Indians rushed up they found that the force which 
had opposed their progress consisted of one old man. Happily he was recog- 
nized, and his position, -with admiration for his gallantry, saved his life. The 
house was then surrounded, and Mrs. Campbell with her mother and four children 
were taken prisoners. Her eldest son was saved through the devotion of his 
negro nurse, who wrapped him with the family bible in a blanket and hid them 
behind a fence. When the father returned to his home, this was all that was left 
of his family treasures. 

As evening fell the enemy gathered up. their plunder and prepared for a depart- 
ure. The prisoners, drenched by the rain and with no protection against the 
wintry blast but the scantiest apparel, were huddled in groups and marched down 
the valley. About two miles below the fort they halted for the night. Around 
them gleamed the watch-fires of the savages; far in the distance rose the smoke 
from their burning homes, while within their hearts dwelt sad forebodings of the 
future. At length dawn broke to their sleepless eyes, and again they resumed the 
march. The aged mother of Mrs. Campbell, unable to keep pace with her coni- 
panion.s, was tomahawked by her Indian guard and thrown naked by the road- 
side. Her daughter, bearing an infant in her arms, was driven along by the same 
demon with uplifted and bloody hatchet. 

The next morning a halt was called and the joyful news communicated that it 
had been determined to send back the women and children. However, the fam- 
ilies of >Ir. Moore and Colonel Campbell were excluded from the act of grace, 
and reserved for a long and rigorous captivity among the Indians. The mothers 
were separated from their children, and it was not until near the close of the 
war that they were exchanged and reunited with their families. Eight years ago 
we laid to rest the last survivor of this party. A lad of six years when he was 
taken piisoner, he remembered almost to his death the incidents of his Indian 
life. During the late civil war one of his grandsons was taken by the Confeder- 
ates and confined at Andcrsonville. As the old man heard how these prisoners 
were treated by their Christian captors, he used to say, that on the whole he 
thought the red man was the least savage of the two. 

On the morning after the massacre a party of Indians returned to glean the 
bloody field, but two hundred militia arrived from the Mohawk and they soon 
dispersed. Then followed the sad work of burying the dead. From the 
scattered ruins of their homes the charred and mangled corpses were gathered 
up. In the old churchyard a deep trench was dug, and there in a common grave 
most of them were laid down to eternal rest. Upon this spot we have to-day 
erected our monument. It stands not to record a triumph, but that future gene- 
48 



378 Centennial Celebrations. 

rations, as they read the inscription upon its stone, may remember -what it cost to 
win tlie liberties whicli sometimes we prize so Ughtly. 

When the inhabitants who liad escaped met again at the fort, and were joined 
by the prisoners who had been released, it was determined to abandon the settle- 
ment. Their homes were in ashes, all their property, except the bare land, had 
been destroyed, and to attempt rebuilding would only invite another raid, against 
which, from their exposed position, tliey had proved so powerless. Under the 
circumstances most of them moved to the jMohawk Valley, and there during the 
continuance of the war they did noble service. In the summer the fort was given 
up as useless, a band of marauders applied the torch to the old church, and 
Cherry Valley existed only as a recollection. 

In the year after the massacre at Cherry Valley General Sullivan conducted an 
expedition against the villages of the Six Nations. One part of his force passing 
from the Mohawk to Otsego Lake dammed its waters, and floated down the Sus- 
quehanna on the flood caused by opening the dam. Turning to the west they 
dealt a blow to the Onondagas, the Cayugas and the Senecas, which it was hoped 
might give Tryon county peace. Yet even in this very summer Cobleskill was 
again ravaged, and frequent murders along the frontier showed how insecure 
was life. 

But in 1780, the bloody work re-opened on a gigantic scale and continued 
down to the return of peace. First the little settlement of Harpersfield, the last 
of those along the Susquehanna, was blotted out, and then the valleys of the 
Schoharie and the Mohawk west of Schenectady, were made a desolation. I have 
neither time nor heart to dwell upon these scenes, in fact it Avould be but a repe- 
tition of the story which I have already told. In the various settlements rude 
forts had been erected, twenty-four in all, into which the inhabitants flocked for 
safety. But in the whole district outside their walls was hardly left a building or 
a breathing, living thing. 

Yet you must not imagine that the sturdy patriots of Tryon county witnessed 
the destruction of their homes without resistance. After the battle of Oriskany, 
they saw full well what the future had in store for them. AYritiug to Congress 
they pointed out the dangers of their exposed position; showing how without a 
regular force it would be impossible to protect the frontier against the Indians, 
but closed by saying, "AVe are resolved if we do fall, to fall as becomes brave 
men." Nobly did they redeem their pledge. Time and time again they gathered 
and drove the invaders from their soil. The records are stained with fire and 
blood, but never with dishonor. 

The town of Sharon, but six miles distant, witnessed one of the bloodiest minor 
engagements of the war. A party of one hundred and fifty militia, led by 
Colonel AVillet, whom the Indians called "The Devil," ^vith the brave Major 
M'Kean of Cherry Valley as second in command, utterly routed a hostile force of 
twice their number. A few months later occurred the battle of Johnstown, 
equally creditable to Tryon county. Tliere AVillet, with about five hundred men, 
defeated a force of tories outnumbering his own, exclusive of some one hundred 
and thirty Indians. In the rout which followed this victory, Walter Butler, the 
author of the Cherry Valley massacre, lost his life. With poetic justice he met 
the very fate which he had meted out to others. Fleeing up the Mohawk he 
reached the West Canada creek, across which he swam liis horse, and then turned 
to bid defiance to his pursuers. An Oneida Indian who, like a sleuth hound, had 
followed on his track, with a rifle ball brought him wounded to the ground. 



Cherry Valley. B79 

Casting aside gun and lilanket, tho Indian phingcd into the stream and swam 
across. Uutkr now i)itooiisly begged for mercy. The Oneida, brandisliing his 
tonialiawk, replied in liroken Englisli, " Sherry VaUoj', remember Sherry Valley ! " 
and then cleft his skull. 

These were about the only occasions on whicli the patriots could force the 
enemy to an open fight. But the record is illuminated throughout with indi- 
vidual deeds of daring such as history cannot surpass. The world's tales of 
romantic valor contain nothing more absorbing than the lives of Murphy, M'Kean, 
Harper, Shankland, Shell, the Sammonses and Captain Gardenier. The story of 
their adventures would make the fortune of a novelist. 

But against the enemy with whom they had to deal, valor, discipline and skill 
were powerless. Around them and in their very midst lived secret spies who 
gave notice of their every movement. To the Indians each foot of the surround- 
ing country was familiar ground. They marched -tt-ithout baggage and by secret 
paths, and never knew fatigue. Behind them stretched illimitable forests, into 
which they would retreat when they had struck their blow. They never wanted 
for ammimition, for Canada and the British forts were unfailing arsenals. Besides 
this they now were fighting for their homes and hunting grounds, and the Tories, 
the bloodier of the two, had no future except revenge. Under such conditions it 
is no wonder that Tiyon county was made a waste. ^VTiat her patriot people 
suffered, the world can never know. Bare figures give but a faint suggestion, and 
yet they tell a fearful tale. Of the whole population it was estimated that about 
a third went over to tlie enemy, of those remaining, one-half were driven from 
the coimtry or died by violence. At tho outbreak of the war, the county contained 
twenty-five hundred able-bodied men, at its close it numbered twelve hundred 
ta.xable inhabitants, three hundred widows and two thousand orphans. 

Such were the sufferings of the loyal men of Tryon county; but looking at the 
grand result, they were not borne in vain. Their homes were ruined, their prop- 
erty destroyed, and at times gaunt fiiinine threatened them with utter extermina- 
tion ; but thev held the !Miihawk Valley for the Continental cause. Beyond them 
lay Albany and the district of the Hudson, from which our army largely gathered 
its supplies. Had the Jlohawk been surrendered, the Hudson would have been 
the frontier of the State ; and what that meant, Tryon county knew. But these 
twenty-four little forts, scattered along the Schoharie and the Jlohawk, were 
never taken. About them blazed the fires and gleamed the tomahawks of the 
savage foe; arot'.nd them bloody raids were made; but no army marching to the 
Hudson could leave such fortresses behind it. This gave to the county its strate- 
gical importance. But another consideration should not be overlooked. When, 
after the surrender at Yorktown, England made peace with her rebellious colonies, 
it was not so much on account of any defeats whicli she had suffered in the field, 
as because it was api):in'nt that a jieoplc like this could never be subdued. Among 
this people, wliose indoniitable spirit thus wrung from England a reluctant peace, 
you will find none whose record for valor, constancy and fortitude surpasses that 
of the patriots of Tiyon county. 

I feel that I have given but a very imperfect sketch of what Central New York 
did and suffered in the Revolution. Yet read your school books, and of this you 
will scarcely find a trace. Read your more pretentious histories, and you wUl be 
told that New York had a large Tory population, and you will find little else 
. besides. This is very true, but it is the merest fraction of the truth. It is only 
tlie dark setting of the picture, wluch should throw into the sunlight the glorious 



380 Centeistnial Celebrations. 

colors upon the canvas. Nowliere were tlie Tories so active and untiring; but 
nowhere did tlie patriots do and sutler so mucli as here. 

I am ashamed that New Yorlters have let other men write American liistoryaud 
make the picture of the shadow. With her capital, the whole of Long Island and 
Staten Island and most of Westchester county, in the hands of the enemy; with 
the central portion of the State such asi have [jictured it, the wonder is that New 
York ever did any thing toward the Revolutionary cause; and yet of the thirteen 
States, three only furnished their full quota of men to the Continental Army, and of 
these New York was one. But two fui'nished their full quota of money and sup- 
plies; of these New York was one. She was the only one of the thirteen that 
furnished her full quota of men, money and supplies. 

Prior to the Revolution she was always foremost. She first resisted the oppres- 
sion of the crown ; she first made stand against the power of Parliament ; she led 
in resistance to the Stamp Act; her merchants signed the first non-importa- 
tion agreement; her citizens organized the first committee of correspondence; 
she first suggested Colonial Independence ; upon her soil the first blood was shed 
in the Revolutionary struggle, and \vithin her border was fought the turning bat- 
tle of the war. And yet historians have called her lukewarm. She first founded 
the freedom of the press; she first established full religious toleration; by her 
magnanimity she formed the first confederation of the States ; she gave to the 
Supreme Court its first Chief Justice ; she gave to America its first and greatest 
financier ; and yet her history has been substantially ignored. 

But I believe that all this is coming to an end. With the records now accessi- 
ble, every student Ivnows the truth. Such gatherings as we have witnessed in the 
State during the last two years, show that the people are interested in the subject, 
and where there is knowledge and a desire for information co-e.\isting, the two 
must come together. One thing I think New York in justice to herself sliouid do. 
She now has a population much larger tlian that of the whole thirteen colonies at 
the time of the Revolution. She has a history of unsurpassed importance. It 
should be made a study in every school-house in the State. The political system 
of this country is peculiar. In certain departments the general government is 
supreme; it has exclusive control of commerce; it alone can make war or peace, 
coin money and the like ; and as supreme in these relations, every one studies the 
history of the United States, and is acquainted with the Federal Constitution. 
But in the larger circle of internal affairs, upon which the daily welfare of the 
citizen depends, the State is equally supreme. It is somewhat like the family cir- 
cle, in which husband and wife are one, and yet each is a responsible, independ- 
ent being. A good American citizen should understand the history and Constitu- 
tion of the United States; but as the citizen of a State he should understand its 
history and Constitution. When this is done. New York will take her right posi- 
tion, not alone in history, but in the councils of the nation. 

And now a few words more, and I have done. When the Revolution had 
closed, the scattered and broken inhabitants of Cherry Valley returned to their 
deserted homes. Exiles they called themselves, and well they might. They 
brought back from their wanderings nothing but stout hearts and the air of free- 
dom which they breathed. But, nothing daunted, they began life over, and soon 
prosperity smiled upon the little valley. They were a God-fearing people, those 
early patriots. When in 1775 they received a summons to a Sunday meeting of the 
Committee of Safety, they replied that as the business was not urgent in its character 
they could not forego attendance on the public worship of their God. Now that 



Cherry Valley. 381 

they had returned from exile, they met in the old graveyard, and there upon the soil 
which contained their sacred dead they re-organized their church. The tiret pas- 
tor was the great man of whom I have ah-eady spoken, the famous Dr. Nott, of 
Union College. . As the settlement was in its infancy devoted to the cause of lib- 
eral education, so it continued in its riper j'cars. Here was located the celebrated 
Academy, in its day the best known institution of its kind in the center of the 
State. Until the canal and railroads had diverted travel and population, its law- 
yers were the leaders of the bar, and its physicians have alway.s been pre-eminent. 

The last half century lias worked great changes in its fortunes; but I am proud 
to say that its people liave not proved unworthy of their ancestors. A century 
has not tliinned the strong red blood that coursed through the veins of the early 
patriots. We have to-day erected a monument to the memory of those who a 
century ago died to give us liberty. Our other monument in the public square 
commemorates the sacrifice of those who died that it might not perish from the 
land. During the Revolution, the little town sent out more tlian one-tenth of its 
population to the Continental Army. I believe that no other place in the United 
States has such a record. How many went forth in the late war no one seems to 
know ; but the facts within our knowledge tell a tale which it is hard to equal. 
At the breaking out of the Rebellion, the town numbered about two thousand 
people ; it furnished to the Union army six lieutenants, eleven captains, and ten 
officers of higher grade ; nearly if not quite enough for a regiment of a thousand 
men. In the old gi-aveyard lie the bodies of thirteeu soldiers who died in service, 
while the bones of thirty-two others are known to lie on Southern battle-fields. 
Doubtless this does not complete the tale, for some died in prison, and others 
sleep in unknown graves; but if forty-five were all, it would yet make a glorious 
record. One dcatli in five enlistments is a large jjercentage. ^Measured by this 
standard, the little town must still have furnished to the army more than a tenth 
of its total population. 

To such a people, I need hardly speak of the lesson taught by the event which 
■we to-day commemorate; it has already come to them from the free hills by 
which they are surrounded, and the sacred soil beneath their feet. These, with 
the air they breathe, have been more eloquent than tongue of man. Her sons 
have shown how deai'ly tliey prized their father's Union by the joy with which 
they went to battle for it. 

But a centuiT ago the sacrifice was not ended when the war had closed. Our 
fatliers returned to find ashes where they had left their homes; weeds and under- 
bru.sh in i)lace of cultivated farms. Others might have been discouraged ; they, 
with valiant hearts, began their life anew. Not only did they suffer in the war 
itself, but while they lived the sacrifice continued. After a century, history 
repeats itself. Our brave soldiers saved the Union, but their sacrifice is not yet 
ended. At home the fathers and mothers nobly did their part, but their work is 
not j'et done. 

The Revolution left these valleys a waste of desolation ; our war has left us an 
enormous debt ; has prostrated our trade, and crippled industry. Our work will 
not be done until true prosperity is re-established, and our debt is honorably paid. 
Men wlio durin-r the Rebellion were secret traitors to their country talk of repu- 
diation, though they gloze the term with specious words. Communists from 
France, and Internationalists from Germany, preach the destruction of society. 
To some men these are attractive sounds. The signs about us seem to presage a 
conflict as momentous as any by whidi we have been tested. But as Xew York 



382 Centennial Celebeations. 

has always in the past proved a bulwark in time of war, I trust that she may now 
stand as a bulwark against national dishonor. People who have no history can 
perhaps afford to repudiate tlieii' debts, as men who have no character ciin afford 
to be dishonest ; but New York can be placed in no such category. Certainly we 
here could not thus prove unworthy of our ancestry. Our fathers, our sons and 
brothers would rise from their graves as witnesses against us, if we refused to 
bear our part of the sacrifices in the cause of liberty. We complain of our 
taxation and the bitter pressure of the times ; but think how this valley looked at 
the close of the Revolution. Let us be, like our ancestors, patient, brave and 
honest; let us trust in the God who has guided our nation from its cradle, and we 
shall see the return of a durable prosperity based on honesty, justice and respect 
for law. 

At the close of Major Campbell's Address the following Ode was 



COLUMBIA'S GLORY. 

Say, have you heard the story 
Of young Columbia's glory. 
When on the red field striving, 
For life and liberty ? 
Then with the foe before us. 
Kind heaven still watching o'er us, 
Safe thro' the carnage bore us. 
We fought ! we bled ! we won ! . 
Then rose the grateful anthem, 
To Him who made us free. 

Where, by our eastern waters, 

Prayed blest Columbia's daughters, 

For heavenly aid to lead us. 

To life and liberty, 

There, first in strife victorious. 

The foe borne down before us. 

Proud was the day and glorious, 

Tlie day of victory ! 

Then rose the grateful anthem. 

To Him who made us free. 

Sad were our hearts, and weary. 
The years were long and dreary. 
Ere dawned the day of promise, 
Of freedom's battle won. 
Long shall be known the story, 
Of young Columbia's glory, 
Long shall our hearts be grateful. 
To Him who made us free ! 
E'en in the gift rejoicing. 
Of fame and liberty. 



Cherry Valeey. 383 

Addresses were also delivered by Hon. S. C. Willson, of Indiana, 
Col. W. W. S^'o^v, of Oiieoiita, and President Pottee. 

Innnediatelj after tiie close of the exercises, Captain Wood's com- 
pany was reviewed by ex-Governor Seymoui:, in Monument Square, 
and addressed by him as follows : 

Gentlemen and Soldiers of tue State of New York : 

I am proud of the honor your captain and you have conferred upon me by the 
review I have just witnessed and the opportunity thus afforded me to address a 
few words of congratuhition to you, not alone for your splendid appearance and 
your gentlemanly and soldierly deportment, but for your patriotic participation as 
citizen soldiers of New York with us and the citizens of Cherry Valley, in doing 
honor to the memory of those to whom we have dedicated yonder monument 
to-day. 

After many years' experience in public life and m the affairs of this State, I am 
able to state to-day tliat in no department of the government of our great State, 
are the people so faithfully and patriotically served as by the National Guard. 
The unselfish and devoted patriotism with which you men perform your duty is 
an example, which, if followed by all the other departments of our government, 
would be a blessing to our people and a sure remedy for the evils from which we 
are suffering today. 

One of the proudest recollections of my public life is the fact that while Gov- 
ernor of this State during the war of the rebellion, I enrolled over 400,000 soldiers 
to fight in the army of the Union, and signed over 16,600 commissions of the 
officers to command them, and that by all of them I was most kindly treated, and 
can say that tl'.e State never received more faithful, patriotic service than she did 
from those men. 

I am happy indeed to become acquainted with you and your oflScers, and to 
thank your captain for this opportunity to address you and wish you, as you 
deserve, every success and honor in your patriotic service. 



^Itc mtX ®itvitul. 



The Old Capitol. 



For nearly ten years, the Capitol of New York was a small building 
situated on what is now the corner of Hudson avenue and Broadway 
in the city of Albany. The building was called the Stadt Haus, or 
City Hall. From an old cut of it to be found in Munsell's Annals of 
Albany it seems to have been an ordinary four story stone building 
with doimer windows and the Albanian gable ends, j^et it contained for 
these ten years witiiin its walls the municipal bureaus of the city, the 
courts of justice of the county, and the county jail as well as the Legis- 
lature. In its yard stood the whipping post and pillory. It is natural 
to suppose that the officials Avere very much crowded. In 1803, the 
comnaon -council of Albany passed the following resolution, four mem- 
bers voting against it : 

" Resolved, That a petition be presented to the Honorable the Legislature, from 
this Board, for au act authorizing the erection of a State and Court-house in the 
public square of this city, and tliat the present Court-house be sold toward de- 
fraying the cx[)ense thereof. That bo a committee to pre- 
pare a petition and cause a map to be made of ground in the square sufficiently 
spacious and suitable for such purpose, and that they report an estimate of the sum 
necessary for such State and Court-house." 

John Cuyler, Charles D. Cooper and Jno. V. N. Tates were ap- 
pointed the committee uiuler the resolution. On March 7th following 
they made their report. In it they stated that " in forming the esti- 
mate of e.xpense, your commissioners have taken a sum for which they 
conceive the contemplated State and Court-house might be finished in 
a plain and commodious manner with little or no decoration or orna- 
ment. Unwilling to lay any burdens on the county which might be 
deemed umiecessary, they have restrained from indulging themselves 



388 Centennial Celebrations. 

in a calculation upon too large or expensive a scale. They have there- 
fore estimated the expense at $30,000 only, to be raised as follows. 

From the sale of the present court-house and ground belonging to 
it which they estimate at 17,500 Dolls. 

The probable amount to be granted by the Legislature for furnish- 
ing apartments, etc., for them, the council, etc., 3,000 Dolls. 

There remains to be raised by tax on the city and county, 9,500 
Dolls. 

The report proceeds to say that little more than one dollar would be 
the average rate on each taxable inhabitant of Albany, and recounts the 
merits of the project as likely to enhance the value of property. It 
says : " The number of lots belonging to this Board which are near and 
about the public square are twenty-seven. It is not supposed that at 
present they would produce more than $15,000, at the rate of $500 each 
for twenty lots on the square and $750 for the seven in State street. 
Yet it cannot be doubted that a State and Court-house erected in the 
square would increase this value, at least, 50 per cent more, consequently 
the city would gain in regard to its public propertj'- at least $8,000 on 
this part of the subject." The report was adopted.* 

The public square was then also called " Pinkster's Hill." It was 
especially noted for numerous fresh water spi'ings, Avhich bubbled forth 
at various places on its surface, and for the general prevalence of cool 
breezes. 

In the February number of Harper's Magazine, in 1S59, is contained 
an account of Pinkster's Hill, by one who announces himself as an old 
Knickerbocker. It says: 

"The road, since my recollection, passed up the hill on the south side of St. 
Peter's and the fort, and in the rear of the latter it passed over Pinkster Hill, on 
which the State capitol now stands. Pinkster Hill ! What pleasant memory of 
my boyhood does that name bring up. That hill was famous as the gathering 
place of all the colored people of the city and for the country for miles around, 
during the Pinkster festival in May. Then they received their freedom for a week. 
They erected booths, where ginger-bread, cider, and apple-toddy were freely dis- 
pensed. On the hill they spent the days and evenings in sports, in dancing and 
drinking and love-making to their heart's content. I remember those gatherings 
with delight, when old King Charley, a darkey of charcoal blackness, dressed in 
his gold-laced scarlet coat and yellow breeches, used to amuse all the people with 

* For efficient aid and direction in eliminating: these hiterestinf^ items from tlie ancient records 
of the common council of Albany, the editor is indebted to Martin Ddlehajstv, Esq., clerk of the 
common council of .\lbany for the last twenty years. 



The Old Capitol. 389 

liis antics. I was a light boy, anil on one occasion Charley took me on his should- 
ers and leaped a bar more than five feet in lieight. He was so generously 
" treated " because of his feat, that he became gloriously drunk an liour after- 
ward, and I led him home just at sunset. When I look into the State capitol 
now when the Legislature is in session, and think of Congress hall filled with lob- 
bying politicians, I sigh for the innocence of Pinkster BQll in the good old days 
of the AVooly Heads.. 

On April 3(1, 1804, the bill authorizing the erection of the public 
building (now the old eajiitol) fiucally passed the Legislature, aud was 
approved by tlie council of revision, April 6th, 1S04. It appears as 
chapter LXVII of the Laws of 1804, and is entitled " An Act mak- 
ing provision for improving Hudson's river below Albany, and for 
other purposes." After some preliminary declarations, it says : 

" And whereas the situation of the present com-t-house in the city of Albany is 
found by experience to be highly inconvenient for the transaction of public busi- 
ness, and the corporation of the said city, having represented to the Legis- 
lature that they are willing to appropriate a lot of ground on the public square of 
the said city, for the scite of a public building for the accommodation of the Leg- 
islature, and for a new City Hall, and have prayed that the present court-house, 
and the lot used vnth the same, might be sold, and the proceeds thereof applied 
toward erecting and finishing such new State house ; therefore 

Be it further enacted. That John Taylor, Daniel Hale, Philip S. Van Rensse- 
laer, Simeon De Witt and Nicholas N. Quackenbush be and they are hereby ap- 
pointed commissioners for the erecting and completing a public building in the 
city of Albany, on a lot to be designated for such purpose, as is hereinafter men- 
tioned, with sufficient and commodious apartments for the Legislature, the coun- 
cil of revision, tlie courts of justice, and for the common council of the said 
city upon such construction, and plan as by them shall be judged proper. 

And he it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the said corpora- 
tion, and they are hereby required, as soon as conveniently may be after the pass- 
ing of this act, to proceed to the sale of the present court-house in the city of 
Albany, and the ground thereto appertaining for the best price, and on the best 
terms they can procure for the same, and on such sale to convey the said house 
and ground to the purchaser or purchasers in fee simple ; and that the monies aris- 
ing from such sale shall be jwiid to the said commissioners, in such manner 
and at such time or times as they shall require, the same to be applied by them 
toward effecting the object intended by this act. Provided, however. That noth- 
ing herein contained shall be held or construed to authorize the said corporation 
so to sell and dispose of the jiremises, as to admit the purchaser thereof to go into 
actual possession before the new State house shall be completed, until which time 
the present court-house shall be occupied and appropriated as the same hath 
heretofore been done. 

And be it further enacted, That the supervisors of the city and county of 
Albany shall cause to be raised, levied and collected by a tax on the free-hold- 
ers and inhabitants of the county of Albany, exclusive of the said city, three 
thousand dollars, and by a tax on the freeholders aud inhabitants of the said city, 



390 Centennial Celebrations. 

a furtlier sum of three thousand dollars; which sums shall be raised, levied and 
collected in the same manner as tlie contingent charges of the said county are by 
law directed to be raised, levied and collected, which sums, when raised, sliall be 
paid to the order of the said commissioners for the purposes aforesaid. 

And he it farlher enacted, That the managers of the lotteries hereinbefore men- 
tioned shall cause to be raised by lottery the further sum of twelve thousand dollars, 
in such manner as they or a majority of them shall deem proper, which sum when 
raised the said managers shall pay unto the said commissioners for the purposes 
aforesaid." 

Tlie law concludes with provisions for bonds to be executed by the 
coinmissioners. in $30,000 each, and for the filling of vacancies in their 
number should any occur, by " the person administering the govern- 
ment of this State." 

The title of this law it will be seen has no reference to the erection of 
acapitol, except in the extremely indefinite terms "for other purposes." 
Under the Constitution of 1777, such cases were very frequent, and it 
is a matter of record that Aaron Burr obtained the passage of an act 
ostensibly for the purpose, as its title indicated, " to supply New York 
city with pure and wholesome water," under the provisions of which 
the Manhattan Bank at No. 40 Wall street. New York city, was incor- 
porated. It is not immediately within the domain of the present sub- 
ject, yet it may be interesting to state that the Manhattan Bank at 
present maintains a reservoir in one of the most thickly populated parts 
of New York city, merely to carry out the provisions of that act.* 

Under the lottery system at that time, all the public improvements 
of the State were conducted. The system was established originally 
by virtue of " An act for the encouragement of literature," for the 
purpose of founding the common school fund, which is now the most 
sacred public trust of the State, and under its provisions, Union, Ham- 
ilton, and Columbia colleges were largely endowed. The system also 
extended to the laying out of roads and highways, the improvement of 
rivers, the building of bridges, the encouragement of the arts and sci- 
ences, and every thing which might be termed a State project. The 
Constitittion of 1821 finally abolished the system and prohibited any 
lottery within the State borders. 

*Th(^ cdiiDr of tlie present voliiiiio recently received a note from Mr. James R. Morrison, presi- 
dent nf 111.' Maiilialt^m Uaiik. <lcscrihing in <Ietail the water-works wliich the coi-poration contin- 
ues til maintain in (Vaitri- sti'i-f-i, hi 'I ween Reaile and Dtiane. in oriler to meet the provisions of its 
original chartei-. Tlie reservoir, an iron tank 41 feet higli, is supplied with water by steam power 
from seven connected wells in the adjoining streets, at the present day, under a contract. 



The Old Capitol 391 

It will be seen by the act above that tlie original appropriation for 
the old capitol was $24,000, to which must be added the proceeds of 
the sale of tlie Stadt Ilaus, which amounted to $17,200 more. With 
this sum the commissioners proceeded promptly to work, and on April 
23, 1806, the corner stone of the building was laid. Philip S. Van 
Rensselaer, then mayor of tlie city, performed the exercises in tlie 
presence of quite an imposing assemblage, including the chancellor 
(John Lansing, Jr.), the judges of the Supreme Court, the members of 
the city corporation, the commissionei's of the capitol, and other offi- 
cials. The papers of the day do not state whether any memorials of 
the time were deposited in the corner stone, and it is a very curious 
thing that it is uncertain to the present day whether any memorials at 
all were so deposited. The custom of depositing memorials in comer 
stones was then in vogue, because the newspapers of that day mention 
the fact of such deposits in the corner stones of other buildings under- 
going erection in Albany at that time. The event of laying the cor- 
ner stone of what was admitted to be one of the most imposing and 
important edifices in the country, is thus modestly chronicled by the 
Albany Daily Advertiser : 

" Oq 'Wednesday, the 23d of April, the corner-stone of the State House was 
laid by Hon. Philip S. Van Rensselaer, in presence of the Chancellor, Judges of 
the Supreme Court, members of the corporation, State House Commissioners and 
other citizens. The site on wliich this edifice is to be erected is at the head of 
State street, on tlie west side of the public square. It is to be built of stone, 
one hundred feet by eighty, on an improved plan, embracing much elegance with 
great convenience and dm-ability." 

In March, 1807, the first report of the commissioners was made to 
the Legislature. It appears in the Assembly Journal of that year, 
under date of March 5th. It says: "The commissioners, for erect- 
ing a building for public purposes in the city of Albau}', report : 
' That, in prosecuting the duties of their appointment, the}' have 
expended $33,200, and have on hand, of the materials purchased with 
money out of that sum, to the amount of $8,750. The architect esti- 
mates that to inclose the building will still require about $16,000 ; to 
complete the interior $20,000. The portico with steps of freestone, 
columns of marble and pediment of wood, $6,800. Total, $4r2,800. 
This estimate contemplates a wooden cornice around the building and a 



392 Centennial Celebrations. 



sliingle roof. If the cornice be made of stone and tlie roof of slate, 
$10,000 more will be required.' " 

In accordance with the suggestion of the commissioners, the Legisla- 
ture soon afterward appropriated $20,000 further toward the erection of 
the building, the sum, as usual, to be raised by a lottery. In March, 
180S, the commissioners made another report,- showing that the total 
amount received from all sources was $69,600, of whicii they had 
expended for the work in hand $67,688. They announced also that 
they wei'e of opinion that $25,000 was needed to finish the building. 

The Legislature promptly passed a bill appropriating the needed 
$25,000. In 1809 $5,000 was appropriated for furnishing the new 
building, and in another bill $500 was appropriated "for the comple- 
tion of the public building in the city of Albany, which building shall 
hereafter be known as the Capitol." Previous to this, every building 
for the accommodation of the State government had been known as 
the State House. In April, 1810, $-1,000 was appropriated again 
toward finishing the building, and in 1811 the same amount was also 
appropriated. In 1814 the commissioners considered their work 
finished and rendered their final accounts. From this it is shown that 
the expense of erecting the old building amounted to $110,685.42, 
and was defrayed as follows : 

Paid by the State $73,485 43 

Paid by Albany city 34,300 00 

Paid by Albany county 3,000 00 

Total $110,685 43 



In section 48 of the supply bill for 1814, it is provided that the 
comptroller shall allow to the commissioners of the " publick building " 
one per cent out of the moneys expended, as a compensation for their 
services. Albany city and county, of course, held an interest in the 
grounds and buildings under the law, and they continiied to do so until 
1829, when (May 5, 1829) an act was passed authorizing the payment 
of $17,500 to the city and county, on condition that all rights and 
interests in the capitol and the park should be released. The terms 
were accepted, and since that time Albany (city or county) has had no 
right or interest in the Capitol or Capitol Park, except that of police 
surveillance, which is voluntarily contributed. 



The Old Capitol. 393 

The building was considered, when completed, an edifice of great 
pretensions. Travelers and tourists described it in language of excess- 
ive admiration. Professor Silliman, in 1813, spoke of it as " a large,' 
liandsume building, tiie furniture exhibiting a good degree of splendor." 
Mr. Horatio Gates Spailord described the building in detail in 1823, 
and said of the senate and assembly chambers, which were then on the 
same floor : '' In the furniture of these rooms there is a liberal display 
of ])ublic munificence, and the American eagle assumes almost impe- 
I'ial splendor." Mr. SpafFord's description, except for the rear additions 
which have been made, will stand almost good at the present da}'. 
He said : 

"It stands at the head of State street, adjoining the Public park, and on an 
elevation of 130 feet above the level of the Hudson. It is a substantial stone 
building, faced with freestone taken from the brown sandstone quarries on the 
Hudson below the Highlands. The walls are 50 feet high, consisting of two 
stories, and a basement story of 10 feet. The east, or main front, is adorned with 
a portico of the Ionic order, tetrastile^ the entablature supporting an angular 
jiediment, in the tympanum of which is to be placed the arais of the State.* The 
ceiling of the hall is supported by a double row of reeded columns ; the floors are 
vaiiltcd and laid with squares of Italian marble, diagonally checked with white 
and grey. The building is roofed with a double hip of pj-ramidal form, uytoa the 
center of which is erected a circular cupola, 20 feet in diameter, which contains a 
small bell for the use of the courts. On its dome is a statue of Themis, facing 
eastward: a carved figure of wood, 11 feet in height, holding a sword in her 
right hand, and a balance in her left." 

It is even a matter of record that English travellers spoke of it in 
approving terms. With such pretensions advanced for the old build- 
ing, how little could its originatoi-s have imagined that it would not 
outlive the allotted term of man, and how little could they have fore- 
seen the progress of a State which in seventy years could grow beyond 
the nses of so magnificent an edifice ! 

Some question evidently arose toward the completion of the build- 
ing as to the rights of Albany city and county and the rights of tlic 
State in its occupancy. On April 1, 1807, the common council of the 
city of Albany passed a resolution declaring that the sense of the 
Board is that when " compleatod " tiie same public building shall " be 
used for the accommodation of the Legislature, the Court of Chancery, 
the Supreme Court, the Court of Common Pleas for this county, the 

• See appendix — Note 1 
50 



394 Centennial Celebrations. 

Mayor's court and common council of this city, and such other pur- 
poses as may not be incompatible with the uses above expressly desig- 
nated." And in order to "confirm the said appropriation" it was 
ordered that a copy of the resolution should be filed with the secretary 
of State, and certified by the mayor. 

The rooms of tlie Public Building, when it was first opened to public 
use, were occupied as follows : The governor's room was then on the 
south-east corner of tlie first floor, as it is now, except that an additional 
room projecting upon the main hall was added during the rebellion, 
because of the increased duty devolving upon the govei-nor and his 
military staif. The council of revision met, it appears, in the gover- 
nor's rooms. The apartments occupied by the adjutant-general now 
(in 1879) to which a similar additional room was added during the war, 
were devoted to the Albany CommoTi Council. The assembly chamber 
was the same as in 1S7S, except that various additions have been made 
in the reai', while the senate chamber was to the left of the assembly 
chamber, as you enter from the main hall, and is at this date occupied 
by the department of public instruction. Until last summer, (1878), it 
was used as the post-office and cloak-room of the assembly. "Where the 
present library of the court of appeals is, until latel}^ the room of the 
court itself, was the gallery of the senate. When the senate chamber 
was removed to the large room on the second floor, a floor was con- 
structed on the level of this gallery, and additional rooms thus secured 
to the building. In one of them the super\'isors of Albany county 
held their meetings. On the upper floors originally, the supreme com-t, 
then the highest court of the State, occupied the main room, now 
occupied by the court of appeals, and occupied in 1878 by the senate. 
The other rooms were occupied by the court of chancery, the court of 
common pleas, the court of general sessions and the mayor's court. In 
the attic were placed the mayor's office, the rooms of the society of 
arts, the State library and the State board of agnculture, while in the 
" abasement " were the offices of the county clerk, the marshal of the 
city, and the rooms of the keeper of the capitol. There was not a 
coinmittee room in the entire building. It can hardly be conceived 
that the building could ever have rendered adequate accommodation 
for such a number of public offices, but this arrangement continued 
until the completion of the city hall, in 1831, when the city and county 




.JHttlJI 



The Old Capitol. 395 

offices were removed to that building. Various changes have taken 
place since. The new State hbrary was built under the law of 1851 ; 
the society oi' arts was abolished and large additions were made to the 
rear of the building, for the better accommodation of the clerks and 
members of assembly. Hut none of the various additions kept the 
cajjitol up to the increase of the needs of the State. The sessions of 
the Legislature so overburdened it that part of old Congress Hall, a 
whole private I'esideuee and nuinei'ous apartments in the Dela\an 
House and elsewhere were required for committee rooms. Indeed, 
with so many of the departments located in other buildings, the capitd 
itself was but a centre from which the various branches of the State 
government radiated, i-ather than a habitation in which they held their 
principal court. Nor did the various additions to the old building, 
deemed seventy years ago so magnificent, give it pace with more modern 
sti-uctures about it. The city of Albany, then the seventh in size in 
the Union, although with only 7,.500 inhabitants, has since grown to a 
population of nearly 90,000 (although hardly now to be named among 
the large cities), and witli this growth the ancient grandeur of the old 
capitol has been overtopped by several buildings within sight of it. 
The Cathedral, St. Peter's, St. Paul's and St.. Agnes'. churches, the city 
hall and the new State hall, all within a few blocks of it, far exceed it 
in magnificence, though none of them have an atom of its gray old 
picturesqueness, as it sits in the summer foliage and the winter snows 
a thing of equal honor and beauty, like a little old beldame among her 
grander sons. 

In the quaint old chamber with sculptured cornices over the doors, 
deep wood-fire places and wide chimneys, here and there an odd look- 
ing modem improvement breaking forth upon its ancient surface, 
Daniel D. Tompkins, De Wiit Clinton, Martin Van Buren, "Wil- 
liam L. Maecy, WiLLiAJt H. Srwaud, Silas Wright, Hamilton Fish, 
Washington Hunt, IToratio Seymour, and others of as great renown 
have had their otlicial habitations. Tiiatone room itself is a wonderful 
centre of historical associations. What consultations have been had 
there, and what strange plots and complications have been engineered 
there, is, of couree, not within the historian's sphere, but that great 
state policies and great personal schemes have been bruited in the old 
chamber is beyond any question. The chief magistracy of the chief 



396 Centennial Celebrations. 

State ill tlie Uuiou has been well considered a long step toward the 
chief Magistracy of the Union of the States, yet strangely enough 
only one occupant of the governorship ever reached it. 

In the governor's room, the Council of Revision, which had the 
veto power at present exercised by the governor alone, held its meeting 
in the early j'Cars of the building's history. 

A history of the senate and assembly chambers would be, in effect, 
a history of tlie legislation of the State. Most of the great measures 
which have served to make the State great, found their utterances in 
these two chambers. The' Erie canal project, the abolition of slavery 
in the State, and the important constitutional changes which were made 
in 1821 and 1846, received substance and cohesion in these rooms. 
There were, of course, many incidents hardly so important as these 
changes which also occurred within the walls of the senate and assem- 
bly chambei's. The great constitutional conventions were held in the 
assembly chamber. La Fayette was feasted there in 1825 ; receptions 
to most of the State's distinguished visitors have been given there ; 
the meetings of State agricultural, medical, military and other societies 
were annually held in it, and frequent political campaign gatherings 
have had their few, hours of rant and I'allying from its speaker's rostrum. 
An impressive scene of annual occurrence was the delivery of the 
governor's speech. Up to 1821 it had been customary for the gov- 
ernor iipon being formally made acquainted with the fact that the two 
houses were organized and ready to proceed to business, to reply that 
at such an hour he would meet them in the assembly chamber. At 
that hour the senate would wait upon him, and he at their head with 
the lieutenant-governor would enter the assembly chamber, all the 
assembly standing as he entered, be received by the sergeant-at-arms 
and be formally announced by him to the speaker, who would then 
surrender his place to the governor, and the latter would read what is 
now known as liis message. At the conclusion he would withdraw, 
accompanied by the senate, in the same impressive manner. In 1821, 
liowever, an e.xtra-patriotic committee, appointed as was the custom to 
draw up an answer to the governor's speech, reported that the whole 
custom of guljernatorial speech-making was a "remnant of royalty 
and ought to be abolished." Although this was voted down, the next 
governor, Joseph C. Yates, contented himself witli the message as 



The Oli> Capitol. 397 

delivered at tlie present day, and the most nnnsual presence in either 
house during a session now is that of the governor. The assembly 
chamber was also the meeting place of the legislative party caucuses 
wiiich nominated candidates for governor, and announced the voice of 
the parties in the State in favor of candidates for the presidency. 

In IS 12, Governor Tompkins perfonned an act which was, and may 
have been justly, termed a " remnant of royalty." He dissolved the 
Legislature by a decree of pi-orogation. Perhaps this event was the 
most exciting in the history of the old eapitol. A prorogation under 
the State organization had never been known before and has never 
been known since. The cause of the prorogation was the danger of 
the passage of a bill to charter the bank of America, which had been 
secured, as evidence seemed to show, by wholesale bribery and corrup- 
tion. The passage of the bill by the two houses would have carried 
it to the Council of Kevision where Governor Tompkins could have 
had no control over it, beyond liis own vote. In order to prevent its 
passage, he therefore sent a message to the two houses, on the morning 
when the final vote upon its passage was to be taken, recapitulating 
the chai-ges relative to bribery and corruption, and suggesting that time 
should be afforded for reflection and for consultation with the constitu- 
encies of members, and declaring the two houses prorogued for two 
jnonths, until the 21st of May next, then to meet in the eapitol at the 
city of Albany. The presiding officers of both houses at once declared 
those bodies adjourned. The scene of excitement that ensued extended 
itself to the city, and the town was in commotion. Blows and oaths 
were exchanged within the two chambers, and repeated in the public 
pliices. "When the two houses reconvened after the prorogation, they 
resumed business where it had been cut off by the order of proroga- 
tion, and, notwithstanding the odor of uncleanness that the bill must 
have emitted, and notwithstanding the two months of reflection which 
had been permitted the 7nembers and their consultations with their 
constituents, the bill was passed finall}', within three weeks from the 
re-opening of the session. A" committee drew up a resolution declaring 
the prorogation unconstitutional and dangerous to the liberties of the 
people, but its consideration was set down for a day when neither 
house was likely to be in session, a method at that time in vogue of 
delicately dissenting. 



398 Centennial Celebrations. 

During the visit of La Fayette to tliis country in 1825, a platform 
was erected over the main portico of the old capitol, on which he stood 
and received the people. The spikes inserted in the pillars to sustain 
the platform remain there at present, a somewhat incongruous object 
to those unaware of their history. Another incongruous object which 
probably excites more curiosity than any thing else in the casual 
observer, is a stone projection on the south-east corner of the building, 
oval in form, and having twelve notches in its outer rim. Probably 
hardly more than a dozen men are aware that this is a sun dial, and 
not half a dozen can explain its history. It was, however, the produc- 
tion of a gentleman named Ferguson, who had a taste for 
such matters, and who made it from an engraving of the famous Scotch 
Ferguson's sun-dial, as given in his " Lectures on Select Subjects in 
Mechanics, Hydrostatics, etc." The stone-cutter Ferguson intended to 
make an exact working copy of the sun-dial, as there represented, but 
the hour marks were painted on and for many years have been effaced 
by the action of the weather. Simeon DeWitt, at that time surveyor- 
general and a commissioner of the capitol, was so impressed with the 
worth of the dial that he consented to have it placed where it now is, 
and where it haa stood since 1823.* 

In 18i3, the remains of Col. John Mills, who commanded the Albany 
volunteer regiment in the war of 1812, was permitted by a special act 
to be buried in the capitol park, and the Albany Republican artillery 
company, which represented the regiment, was allowed the privilege, 
which they asked, of erecting a monument over his remains. In their 
report accompanying the bill for this purpose the committee of the 
assembly to whom the matter was referred detailed the services of 
Col. Mills, ending with his death in a gallant charge of his regiment at 
Sackett's Harbor in 1813, and in relation to the proposed monument, 
said : " Tlie posthumous honors which a nation bestows on distinguished 
public services are the i-ewards which alone stimulate a lofty and gene- 
rous ambition. It is thus that great and distinguished acts of devotion 
to the countiy, when cherished and commemorated by a grateful 
people, reproduce thnmselves in after generations. New York may 
proudly point to other sons who equally deserve the most distinguished 

* See appendix — Note 2. 



Q 

O 

<; 



o 



o 




The Old Capitol. 399 

marks of honor, jet all concede that it would he worthily hestowed 
upon tlie devoted patriot and gallant soldier who fell in defense of his 
country, Col. John Mills." 

The remains of the gallant soldier were interred with military rites 
and the great civic ceremonies in the park, and the monument — was 
forgotten. To-day tlie place of his burial is not designated by even a 
head-stone. 

Many efforts have been made to remove the capitol from Albany. 
In 18-46, petitions poui-ed into the Legislature bearing nearly 10,000 
names, asking tliat some other location be designated and the capitol re- 
moved thereto, and declaring that " the capitol has long been detained 
at Albany by the same bad local feastings and other influences which 
formerly prevented the incorporation of any bank in whose stock cer- 
tain inhabitants of Albany were not to have the lion's share." A com- 
mittee reported in favor of taking the sense of the people npon the sub- 
ject, and designating for their choice either SjTacuse or Utica, bnt the 
bill for tliat pui-jiose failed of passage. Attached to a minority report 
upon the question which discussed very fully the mei'its of Albany as 
a capitol are the names of Thomas SMirn, C. D. Baeton, andS. J. Til- 
den. In 1877, a strong feeling for a change in its location was aroused 
because of the large appropriation demanded for the building now in 
process of erection, and a bill to remove the capitol to New York failed 
of passage in the assembly by only a lialf dozen votes. 

The old biailding which this article commemorates deserves a better 
fate than the demolition which is to be its portion within the next two 
or three yeare. Its historic value is hardly exceeded by the national 
edifices in Washington, and, as an eminent speaker says, perhaps the 
only infelicitous incident connected with the erection of the new capitol 
is the fact that the old one must pass away. 



400 Centennial Celebrations. 



APPENDIX TO "THE OLD CAPITOL." 



Note 1. The Arms of the State. 

The arms of the State have never been placed there, possibly because there 
remains to the present day uncertainty as to what is the actual design of the State 
arms. Dr. Henry A. Homes, State Librarian, writes as follows on the subject : 

" The first enacted general law of the State of New York, March 16, 1778, declared 
what were to be the arms and seal of the State.* Several times since, in 1798, 
1801, 1809, and 1813, new seals or modifications of the old seals have been authorized 
by law, but there is no evidence that the arms of the State were ever changed by 
law, 

" The following is a general description of the arms, avoiding technical terms : 
Shield — Upper portion a blue sky, with the sun rising behind three mountains, and 
at the base of the last the sea in calm. Ct-est — An eagle rising from a globe, with 
geographical delineations. Supporters — The figure of Liberty, in dress of gold and 
mantle of red hanging behind from her shoulders to her feet, the right liand 
clasping a staff, crowned with a liberty cap, and her left pressing upon a jewelled 
crown. This is on the right. On the left, the figure of Justice, with dress and 
mantle like those of Liberty, her left hand holding a balance, and a sword pointed 
upward in her right hand. Both of these figures are standing, and the left hand of 
Liberty supports the shield. 

" Efforts are being made in the Secretary of State's office to secure correct pictures 
of the arras in their earliest form. There has been obt:iined an engraving of the 
arms as found on a military commission issued by Governor George Clinton within 
three months after the passage of the law of 1778. There is now painting in colors 
a copy of the arms from a flag displayed by a New York regiment, commanded by 
Gen. Gansevoort at the surrender of Gen. Cornwallis at Yorktowu in 1781, to be 
placed in the State Library, and in the Secretary's ofiice. By chap. 034 of the Laws 
of 1875, a tliird early copy of the arms has been obtained from a window in St, Paul's 
church, New York. With the aid of all these a standard representation of the State 
arms will be retained in the Secretary's office. 

" The title pages of the annual editions of the Session Laws, down to 1815, bore a 
vignette of the State arms, of the same general design as the three early copies 
mentioned above ; but in that year, for the first time, the vignette bore the figure of 
Justice seated, and in 1819 the figure of Liberty was also, for the first time, seated. 
Evidently it was supposed that as the seals had been modified, the laws of heraldry, 
as regards the arms, might be disregarded and the supporters be seated." 

No. 3. 

The following extracts from the minutes of the Common Council of Albany, rela- 
tive to the sun-dial, have been brought to the attention of the editor by Mr. Elisua 
Mack, of Albany, and will be found of interest : 



* GreeuJeaf's ed., vol. i, ch. 32 



Appendix to "The Old Capitol. 



401 



At a meeting of the Common Council, liold at the capitol in the city of Albany on 
the 27tb day of May, 1822 : 

Present, His Honor the Mayor, and Recorder, 

Aldermen. 
Gibbons, Hamilton, Phelps, 

Bleecker, Cassidy, L'Amoureux. 

Van Loon, 

Assistants. 
Maher, Lansing, Davis, 

Costigan, Pemberton, Humphrey. 

Resolved, That the Recorder with Messrs. Hamilton, Humpliny and Maher be a 
committee to ascertain the expense of setting up the Dial belonging to this Board, 
upon the Public Square. 

At a meeting of the Common Council, held at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, 
on the 22d July, 1823: The committee to whom was referred a resolution to ascertain 
the expense of setting up a Dial belonging to this Board, upon the Public Square, 
report, that the same may be attached to a corner of the Capitol building, and the 
expense will be about $15. 

ESTES HO\A^, Ch'n. 
Therefore — 

Resolved, That the Board agree in said report. 

Resolved, That tlie City Superintendent be directed to put the Dial at the south- 
east comer of the Capitol building, the expense not to exceed $15. 

It appears in the book of minutes, from which the foregoing extracts were copied, 
that in the year 1822 Hon. Charles E. Dudley was Mayor, Estea Howe, Recorder, and 
Philip Hooker, City Superintendent and Surveyor. 
51 



I'ttt llmv CayitxTt. 



Iljllllijllllllll^ 







The ]S'ew Capitol. 



The inadequacy of the old Capitol to the requirements of the State 
resulted, after a great amount of discussion, in the project of a new 
Capitol. The first legislative action of any kind in relation to the sub- 
ject was had on April 24, 1863, when Jaiiks A. Bell, senator from 
the 18th district, offered by unanimous consent the following resolu- 
tion in the Senate, on behalf of the committee on public buildings. 

Resnhe'h That it be referred to the trustees of the Capitol and the chairman of 
the committee on public buildings (,to act in conjunction witli a committee of the 
Assembly, if appointed), to procure suitable plans for a new capitol, with ade- 
quate accommodations for the several purposes for which the same is needed, and 
to report to the next legislature.' 

The resolution was adopted. The trustees of the new Capitol at 
that time were Horaiio Setmoue, Governor ; David R. Floyd-Jones, 
Lieutenant-Governor ; Theophilus C. Cailicot, Speaker ; Hoeatio Bal- 
LAED, Secretary of State ; Lucrus Eobinson, Compti-oller, and John 
CocnEANE, Attorney-General. John V. L. Peuyn was chairman of the 
committee on puljlic buildings. These gentlemen, e.xcept the speaker 
and secretary of state, made a report at the succeeding session, imder date 
of March 1, to the effect that they had procuted the plans designated, and 
that of Messrs. Fullee and Jones " was much more elaborate, and 
reflects credit on their ability and taste ; not only are the interior 
arrangements \ery complete, but the proposed front is one of great 
merit." They presented also copies of their directions to architects for 
making the ])lans, wherein they state that the building should contain 
suitable rooms for the governor and staff, senate, assembly, court of 
appeals. State library, superintendent of public instruction and the 



406 Centennial Celebkations. 

keeper of the Capitol. It was suggested in the propositions that plans 
should be made with reference to the square about the' old building, as 
the site for the new one. 

Early in the session of 1865 a resolution was adopted in the senate, 
appointing a committee of three (Senators William Laimbeee, Jr., 
O. M. Allaben and Chaelics J. Foi.ger), to ascertain by correspond- 
ence with various municipalities of the State, on what terms the 
grounds and buildings necessary for a new Capitol and public offices 
could be obtained. The committee met soon afterward and sent a cir- 
cular to various cities and villages of the State, embodying the matter 
of the resolution. Among the responses to the circular were all sorts 
of propositions, from all sorts of places. New York city offered to 
give a site in the Battery, City Hall Park, Tompkins Square, Central 
Park or in any public place, and erect all the buildings necessary free 
of expense to the State, and, in addition, to furnish one hundred feet 
square on Fifth aveniie, opposite Central Park, and erect thereon a 
suitable house for an executive mansion. Tonkers, Saratoga Springs, 
Athens on the Hudson, Wliitestown, Argyle, Sing Sing, Fulton and 
Margaretville also made handsome otfers, while Buffalo, Oswego and 
Utica sent polite notes declining to make any propositions. The village 
of Sandy Hill, Washington county, rejected the circular with strong 
indignation, its president announcing in his reply that "if the time 
has come when our Capitol is to go to the highest bidder, like most 
every thing that has any connection with our present legislation, then I 
would plaiidy and franicly say that our people are not the ones to offer 
large bribes or inducements for the pui-pose of building u]-) their place 
or people to the detriment and inconvenience of all the rest of the 
people of the State." Mayor Eli Perry, for the corporation of Albany, 
agreed to convey to the State the block known as Congress Hall block 
or any other lands in the city required for that purpose. 

Upon the report of the connnittee an act was passed May 1, 1865 
(chapter 648) entitled " An Act authoi-izing the erection of a New 
Capitol." This act required that whenever, within three years, the 
city of Albany shall convey to the State, in fee-simple and unincum- 
bered, the parcel of land generally known as Congress Hall block, the 
governor shall nominate, and with the consent of the senate appoint a 
board of three commissioners to be known as the " The New Capitol 



The Nkw Capitol. ' 407 

Commissioners " for the purpose of erecting a new capitol for the use 
of the exeL-utive, legishitive and judicial departments, and such otlier 
purposes as may be connected therewith. Tiie act further states that 
the new capitol shall be located upon the site of the present capitol, and 
certain grounds adjacent thereto, and '" built of such material and in 
sufli manuiT in all respects as will best pronaote the public interest 
and secure the completion of a substantial and conuaodious edifice." 
The same act appropriates §10,000 for the commencement and prose- 
cution of the work. In February, 1866, Governor Fenton sent a com- 
munication to the legislature announcing that Albany had complied 
with the conditions of the act just quoted, and he recommended that 
the proseeutioii of tlie work ishould be undertaken without unnecessary 
delay. Thereupon, April 14, 1866, an act was passed (chap. 583) rati- 
fying and confirming the location of the capitol and site of the capitol 
building at Albany, and on May 3, 1866, Hamilton Harris and John 
V. L. Pkutn of Albany, and O. B. Latham of Seneca Falls, were ap- 
pointed and confirmed as " The New Capitol Commissioners." The 
commissionei'S at once proceeded to their work. 

On April 22d, 1867, " An act appropriating moneys for the build- 
ing of a new capitol" was j^assed appropriating §250,000 for the pur- 
pose, but providing that " no part of the amount hereby appropriated 
shall be expended, nor sball the capitol conunissioners incur any ex- 
pense on account of said capitol until a plan of the capitol shall be 
adopted and approved by them, and approved by the governor, not to 
cost more than four millions of dollars when completed." A large 
number of plans were submitted, from which that of Tuomas Fuller 
was accepted, and the building was begun under that plan, Mr. Fullek 
being appointed architect. Mr. Lathaji, one of the eomniissioners, 
dissented from the views of the commissioners regarding the plan 
adopted and tho general method of conducting the work, and on Feb. 
13, 1868, he forwarded a memorial to the senate (Senate Document 
Xo. 27), making complaint against his associate commissioners, that 
the designs and plans adopted were not the best that were offered, and 
after detailing the points wherein the plans were deficient, stating that 
" under the act the whole matter was left to the controlling judg- 
ment of two commissioners, neither of whom is a builder or an arch- 
itect." In a communication to the governor, Mr. L.vrnAM declared 



408 Centennial Celebrations. 

that the design which had been accepted showed " a want of har- 
mony," and proceeded hkewise in detail to show the " errors " of the 
design. April 10, 1869, Mr. Latham presented another memorial, 
declaring himself opposed to the designs adopted, and charging that com- 
petitors had not been permitted to come before the board of commis- 
sioners to explain and elucidate the plans submitted by them. These com- 
plaints were investigated by committees of both houses, but no report 
was rendered by either committee, while the desired appropria- 
tions continued to be made without qualification. In the meantime, an 
act passed May 19, 1868, appropriating an additional $250,000 for the 
new capitol, had made a change in the board of commissioners, adding 
to the three gentlemen then acting, the names of James S. Thatee, 
Alonzo B. Cornell, William A. Eice, James Teewilligee and 
John T. Hudson. The same act authorized the commissioners to take 
as additional land for the site of the new capitol one-half of the block 
of land adjoining the Congress Hall block on the west, and to cliange 
the plans in their discretion, but not to proceed to construction if the - 
cost involved more than four millions. On the 9th of December, 
1867, the work was commenced by clearing the grounds of 
buildings, but was delayed for one year in order to procure the addi- 
tional land authorized by the last act. On July 7, 1869, the first 
stone of the foundation was laid. The excavations for the foundation 
were made to an average depth of 15]^ feet below the surface, through 
sand and clay. On May 6, 1869, the $250,000 previously appropriated 
was applied to payment for the lands taken for the purposes of the new 
capitol, and on May 10, 1869, $125,000 was further appropriated, and 
an unexpended balance of the same amount was re-appropriated. 

The Plans. 
After a number of attempts to secure unanimous agreement between 
the Capitol Commissioners, the Land Commissioners and tlie Governor, 
in the choice of a plan for the new biulding, the plans of Messrs. Ful- 
ler and GiLMAJSf were approved on the 7th of December, 1867, and on 
August 14th, 1868, the new Board approved said plans with certain 
modifications made by Mr. Thomas Fuller. In March, 1868, Mr. Ful- 
ler submitted a detailed estimate of the cost of the building, placing 
the amount at $3,924,665. On October 13, of 1868, Hon. Van E. 



The New Capitol. 409 

Richmond, State Engineer, and William J. McAlvinic, ex-State Engi- 
neer, reported tliat they had reviewed tlie plans and estimates of Mr. 
Fuller, and that they were of opinion that the new capitol could be 
completed on the plans adopted by tlie Board for $-i,12o,000, and for 
less than $4,000,000 if the work should be done entirely by contract. 

The following is a description of the grounds and building, accord- 
ing to the plans then adopted. (Senate Doc. 13, 1870.) 

The Capitol square embraces all of the land between Eagle street on the east, 
and a new street which has been opened on the west ; and between Washington 
avenue on the north and State street on the south, being 1,034 feet long by 330 
feet wide, containing seven and eighty-four one-hundredtlis acres. The elevation of 
.the new street on the west is loo feet above the level of the Hudson, and the ground 
falls off to the eastward fifty-one feet. The grades of the streets on the north 
and south sides are nearly on the same elevations. The building will occupy 290 
feet of the width of the grounds between Washington avenue and State street, 
and the center of tlie north and .south fa(;ades will be placed in the line of the 
center of Hawk street, leaving an open space of 136 by 330 feet on the west. 
When the building is completed, the old Capitol, Library, and Congress Hall will 
be removed, leaving a park on the east of 473 feet long and 330 feet wide, or a 
little more than two and one-half acres. The basement floor will be placed at an 
elevation of two steps above the grade of Washington avenue, at the north cen- 
tral entrance. 

TitE Building. 
In tlie exterior compositiou of the design there is a general adherence to the 
style of the pavilions of the New Louvre, of the Hotel de Ville of Paris, and 
the elegant Hall or Maison de Commerce recently erected in the city of Lyons. 
Without servile imitation of any particular example, tlie architects have produced 
a composition in the bold and effective spirit which marks tlie most admired 
specimens of modern civil architecture. The terrace which forms the grand 
approach to the cast or principal front, will form an item of striking architectural 
detail, nowhere else attempted on such an extensive scale, at leasfc in America. 
The exterior is 290 feet north and south, and 300 feet cast and west. The floor 
immediately above the level of the plateau of the terrace will be entered throusrh 
the porticos on Washington avenue and State .street, and through a can-iage 
entrance under the portico of the east front. The first, or main entrance floor will 
be reached by a bold flight of steps on the east front and also on the west leading 
through the porticos to the halls of entrance, each having an area of sixty by 
seventy-four feet, and twenty-five feet in height. Communicating directly with 
these halls arc two gi-and staircases which form the ]irincipal means of communi- 
cation with the second and most important floor. On the left of the east entrance 
hall arc a suite of rooms for the use of the Governor and his secretaries and military 
staff. On the right are rooms for the Secretary of State and Attorney-General, 
with a corridor leading to the rooms appropriated for the Court of Appeals, which 
is seventy by seventy-seven feet. On the .second or princi]ial floor are the cham- 
bers for the Senate and -Vs.sembly, and for the State Library, all of which (in ele- 
vation) wiU occupy two stories, making forty-eight feet of height. Rooms for 
52 



410 Centennial Celebrations. 

the committees and other purposes will occupy the remainder of these floors. The 
Senate chamber will be seventy-five by fiftj'-five feet on the floor, with a gallery on 
three sides of eighteen feet width. The Assembly chamber will be ninety-two by 
seventy-five feet on the floor, and surrounded by a gallery similar to that of the 
Senate chamber, and which, in both, largely increases the areas of the upper 
portion of these chamlaers. The library will occupy the whole of the east front 
of these two stories, and will be 383 feet long and fifty-fom- feet wide. These 
chambers will all be lighted from the roof, and also by windows in side walls. 
The main tower will be sixty-eight feet square and about 300 feet in height. 
In the center of the building will be an open court of 137 by ninety-two feet, the 
inclosing walls of which vnU be treated in the same manner as the exterior fronts, 
and tliis court should ultimately have its fountains and statuary. 

On January 14, 1871, Amasa J. Pajkker, Jr., the assistant treasurer 
of the new capitol commission, made a report showing that the entire' 
expenditure by the commissioners since the commencement of the 
work to Dec. 31, 1870, had been $1,612,734.98. 

The Cornee-Stone. 
The corner-stone of the new capitol was laid with great ceremony on 
June 24, 1871. The exercises included an introductorj^ address by 
Hon. Hamilton Harris, a reading by Plon. William A. Rice of a 
list of the Historical Documents and memorials to be placed in tlie 
corner stone, an address by his excellency John T. Hoffman, governor 
of the State, and the usual masonic ceremonies of laying the corner- 
stone by the Grand Lodge of free and accepted masons of New York, 
Most Worsliipful John H. Anthon, grand master, conducting the ser- 
vices. The event was. chronicled with great display by the newspapers 
of the day. Although the weather was stormy and a heavy shower was 
falling, the civic and military display covered all the ground about 
Washington avenue. Eagle street and State street, while civilians with 
upraised umbrellas dotted every available stoop and sidewalk. 

Changes of Commissioners. 

Another change was made in April, 1871, of the new capitol commis- 
sioners and the board now stood as follows : Hamilton Harris, of 
Albany, Willlui C. Kingsley, of Brooklyn, William A. Rice, of 
Albany, Chauncey M. Depew, of New York, Delos De Wolf, of 
Oswego, and Edwin A. MERRriT, of Potsdam. 

The work on the building proceeded as usual, with occasional delays 



The New Capitol. 411 

because of small .ippropriations and obstructions tlirowii in the way by 
the comptroller. 

For six months in 1874, the woi-k was entirely suspended for want 
of an approjiriation, and the commission were compelled to borrow 
$800,000 from the National Connnercial Baidi of Albany to continue 
the work deemed absolutely necessary. 

In a re])ort made January 4, 1875, the commissionere state that the 
total amount of receipts by the commission from the commencement of 
the work to the 1st day of January, 1875, was §5,158,198.^0. 

Investigation of tuk Work of the Commission. 
On May 20, 1875, the finance committee of the Senate having been 
directed by resolution of the Senate to investigate the expenditures of 
the new capitol commissioners, made a report of e.xceeding length 
including all the testimony taken (Senate Doc. No. 95, 1875). In this 
report various statements were made derogatory to the methods of the 
new capitol commissioners, and the committee reported as their con- 
clusions, in the following terms : 

The committee are of tlic opinion that the system imder which the work of tlic 
new cai)itol lias been carried on up to .Tune, 1S74, is uot a wise one. Otlior pub- 
lic buildings, not, however, inciUTing the exjienditure of so large sums of mouey, 
have been undertaken and carried on by the State under the same system of com- 
missions. Some of the best men in the State have held positions in such commis- 
sions, and yet your committee has foimd, in the investigation of their affairs, that 
the work has been carried on under them with great disadvantage to the State ; 
and in this investigation, as in the investigation of the affairs of those commis- 
sions, we find nothing involving the personal integrity of the commissioners. 

In this new capitol work, the system of management under the different com- 
missions has been substantially the same. The commissioners have been gentle- 
men of various pursuits in life, serving without compensation, attending the stated 
meetings of the board, and having a general oversight of the business, but giving 
it no constant or special attention ; but it was a business of which they had no 
practical knowledge, and in which they had no exi)erience. The detail of the 
business and its immediate management has been left to others, with responsibility 
so divided and sub-divided, that there was no one who considered himself respon- 
sible for any negligence or mismanagement which resulted. Hence, it is claimed 
on the part of the commissioners that the faults complained of have come, to a 
great extent, from the system, and that under it the responsibility for all that has 
gone wrong shouUl not be ascribed to them, oi- those of them residing remote 
from the place where the work is going on, and where it could not have their per- 
sonal oversight. 

We think the direct management of the business of carrying on siieh a work 
should be in the hands of one responsible man, who should lie a practical builder, 



412 Centennial Celebrations. 

of large experience, who understands the business, and who should devote his 
entire time to it; such a man, vnth the aid of his experience, can manage the 
business with far more advantage to the State than any commission possibly 
could. 

Under such a system, honestly and economically administered, the work of the 
New Capitol would have been much further advanced, and that portion 
which has thus far been erected might have been accomplished with a saving of 
at least a million of dollars. The results of the past year, under the partial change 
that has been made, confirm the committee in this opinion. 

This repoi-t was signed by D. P. "Wood, S. S. Lowery, J. II. Selk- 
EEG and John C. Jacobs. 

In February, 1875, Hon. Hamlton Harris, the chairman of the 
new capitol commissioners, resigned that position after nearly ten years 
of service. His interest in the work, however, did not cease, and it was 
his fortiine, after his resignation as a commissioner, to be called to take 
part in the conduct of the work upon the building by his appointment 
in January, 1S76, (being then a senator) to the chairmanship of the 
Finance Committee, which position he still holds. It was also his 
fdrtune after taking an important part in the inception of the building 
to offer a resolution sixteen years afterward, providing for eonunemora- 
tive exercises on its occupation. In a law of the same year passed June 
21 (chap. 634), the entire old Board of Commissioners was abolished, 
and a new Board composed of the Lieutenant-Governor, Auditor of the 
Canal Department and Attorney-General was constituted instead. These 
were William Dorsheimek, Daniel Pratt, and Francis S. Thayer. 
The act further stated as follows : 

Before any portion exceeding fifty thousand dollars of the sum by this act ap- 
propriated for the construction of said New Capitol shall be expended, full detailed 
plans and specifications of the story of said building containing the legislative halls 
thereof shall be made and approved, in writing by said Lieutenant-Governor, the 
Auditor of the Canal Department and Attorney-General, and not more than one- 
half of the said appropriation shall be expended before full detailed plans and 
specifications of the whole of the remainder of said building shall be made and 
approved m writing, by the said Lieutenant-Governor, the Auditor of the Canal 
Department and Attorney-General, and when so ajjproved they shall not be altered 
or departed from except by the concurrent written consent and approval of said 
Lieutenant-Governor, the Auditor of the Canal Department and Attorney-General, . 
which said consent and approval shall be indorsed upon a plan accompanied by 
specifications, which shall fully and distinctly state the extent of such alteration, 
and the manner and extent the expense of said building will be affected by such 
alteration. 



The New Capitol. 413 

The atnouiit appropriated was one million dollars. On December 
31, 1875, the new Commissioners, except Mr. Tiiavkij, made a report 
as follows (Senate Doc. No. 13, 1876): 

This provision of the law imposed upon the commission a task, for the proper 
performance of which great care and special knowledge was required. The new 
capitol had been the subject of much criticism by committees of the legislature, 
by professional critics, and by the general public. It was alleged to be improperly 
and carelessly built; that much of the material used was poor and untrustworthy; 
that the arrangements of tlie building were not convenient for the uses intended; 
that some of the rooms, like the legislative halls and the governor's reception room, 
were inconveniently large ; that the approaches were not suitable for a public 
building in the climate of Albany; that the design, as a work of art, was faulty, 
and the edifice, when finished, would be a subject of regret, by reason of its inar- 
tistic and extravagant architc'ctnre. Upon all of these particulars, the commission 
felt it necessary to seek the advice of men of skill, and competent to pronounce 
upon such matters. It is obvious that the plans and specifications for so great a 
structure will present many questions as to heating, ventilation and construction, 
which a board of public officers, who were not chosen with reference to such labor, 
would be illy qualified to decide. The cost of the capitol had already greatly ex- 
ceeded the original estimates. The architect's estimates, submitted to the legisla- 
ture before the new capitol was begun, placed the cost of it at a little less than 
four millions of dollars. AVhen the present commission entered upon their duties, 
the building had already cost the sum of §.5,665,963.60 and the walls were then 
raised to the floor of the principal story. At that time it was said that the 
architect estimated the cost of completion at between seven millions and eight 
millions of dollars. It seemed to the commission to be an important duty to ascer- 
tain what the building would in truth cost, and to report the same to the legis- 
lature, in order that the work might go forward with a proper reference to ex- 
penditure, and that the legislature might determine upon the time within which 
the structure should be comjjleted, and devise some consistent system of carrying 
on and administering the work. Besides, estimates were necessary to enable the 
commissioners to determine upon the plans and specifications, as they were not 
willing to lay out of view all consideration of expense, and to go forward without 
reference to the ultimate cost of the building. For manifest reasons it was de- 
sirable that the estimates of cost should be obtained from persons who should oc- 
cupy an impartial attitude with reference to the stnicture, and who, by their skill 
and public reputation, should give assurance to the legislature and the people of 
the State, that the estimates had been thoroughly and honestly made. 

Upon all of these considerations, the commission determined to call to their aid a 
suitable number of skilled advisers. The gentlemen selected for this important 
service were Frederick Law Olmsted, Leopold Eidlitz, and Henry H. Rich- 
ardson, all of the city of New York. The two gentlemen last named arc archi- 
tects of excellent professional .standing, and ifr. Olmsted is well known for long 
and honorable service in connection with the Central park in New York, and with 
similar works in Brooklyn, Buffalo, and other cities. 

On Jannarv 1, 1876, the personnel of the commission was changed 
by tlie appointment of Geoeoe W. Schutler, auditor of the Canal 



414 Centennial Celebrations. 

Department, in place of Mr. Tiiatee, and the inangiiration of 
Chaeles S. Faiechild as Attorney-General, having been elected in the 
previous November to succeed Mr. Pratt. The second act, passed in 
1876 (chap. 2) repealed that part of the act of 1875 requiring that " not 
more than one-half the said appropriation shall be expended before full 
detailed plans and specifications of the whole of the remainder of the 
said building shall be made and approved in writing " by the New 
Capitol Commissioners, and the same law states that : 

§ 3. The commissioners of the New Capitol are hereby required to determine 
upon and adopt full detailed plans and specifications of the whole of the remain- 
der of the New Capitol building yet to be built bej'ond the Legislative story, and 
to report their determination to the Legislature within sixty days from the pass- 
age of this act. (Chap. 2, 1876.) 

A later law (chap. 193, the Supply Bill), passed May 1, contains the 
following provisions, after imposing a tax on the State of $800,000 : 

The Commissioners are hereby directed to i-eport to the Legislature at the open- 
ing of its next session full detailed plans and specifications for the completion of 
the whole work by contract or contracts. ***** -pj^g j^g-^ Capitol Com- 
missioners shall cause the work on the New Capitol building to be progressed 
with such diligence as shall insure its readiness for full occupany by tlie first day 
of .January, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, and if practicable, to complete 
and render tenantable some portion thereof at an earlier date. The general plan 
for the exterior of the New Capitol according to which the building has thus far 
been constructed having been adopted with the approval of the Commissioners of 
the Land Office and the Go^^^rnor, in pursuance of law, the same shall not be 
changed or modified, except upon like approval of the Governor and a majority 
of the Commissioners of the Land Office. 

On March 3, 1876, Lieutenant-Governor Doesheimer submitted are- 
port of the advisory board of architects, recommending various changes in 
the general design, and making new plans and estimates for the build- 
ing. In this report they make an estimate of what the work will cost 
according to the plans of the previous architect, and find it to be 
$4,826,039. They also add a summary of estimates as to the cost 
under their proposed modification, amounting to $4,501,039. To this 
they add detailed estimates for the complete fitting and furnishing of 
the building, amounting to $2,182,070. In conclusion they say : 

The building may be made available for use by an additional expenditure of 
$4,400,000, over and above the amount already expended, and if the appropria- 
tions for the ensuing two yeai-s are sufficient to cover the above-mentioned amount, 
the building may be occupied at the opening of the session of the year 1878 




as; 



5EMBLY CHAMBER ,1^EW CAPITOL. 



The New Capitol. 415 

On March 22, the new capitol commissioners announced to the leg- 
islature that they had adopted and determined upon the plans submit- 
ted by tlie advisory board, and that the new building would be ready 
for occupation on January 1, 1S79. The governor and commissioners 
of the land office had agreed to these plans on March 21st, the day 
preceding. On March 23, 1877, the joint tluance committee of the 
two houses of the legislature of which lion. Hamilton Haeeis, who 
had been chairman of the new capitol commission for so long a time, 
was the chairman, made a report (Senate Document No. 44, 1S77) 
strongly remonstrating against the proposed changes, and urging a 
return to the original design. A minority of the joint committee 
made the following report : 

In the judgment of the undersigned, the commission has not exceeded its 
authority, but has rendered the State service of great value in overcoming glaring 
defects of portions of the old plan, and in laying before the Legislature in 187(5 
an estimate of the total cost of comi)lcting the building, which is now verified by 
actual bids, from competent contractors secured Ijy proper bonds, so that whether 
this work is hereafter done in part or entirely by contract the State has, for the 
first time in its history, the assurauce of knowing what it will cost. 

S. H. HA3IM0ND. 

To this was added the following : 

I concur generally in the above, but do not wish to be regarded as expressing 
confidence in the estimate of the cost of completing the building made by either 
of the disagreeing architects. On the contrary, I am satisfied that the building, 
complete in every way, will cost at least §10,000,000 more than has been 
already expended. 

********** 

JOHN C. JACOBS. 

In response to the remonstrance of the joint finance committee, the 
two houses passed in the supply bill of that year the following 
clause : 

The new capitol commissioners are hereby directed to build and complete 
the exterior of the new capitol building in the Italian renaissance style of archi- 
tecture adopted in the original design, and accordiug to tiie style in which the 
building was being erected prior to the adoption of the so-called modified 
desiga 

The personnel of the commission was again changed on January 1, 
1878, by tiie inauguration r>f Augustus Schoonmakeb, Jr., as Attor- 
ney-General in place of Mr. Faikcuild. 



416 Centennial Celebrations. 

The biiilding was rendered ready for occupancy by tlie legislature 
on Jan 1, 1879, imder these directions. On May 14, 1878, the follow- 
ing concurrent resolution offered by Mr. Alvoed of Onondaga was 
passed in the two houses : 

Seaolved, That from and after tlie first day of .January, in the year eighteen 
hundred and seventy-nine, the new capitol. building in the city of Albany sliall 
be and the same is hereby declared to be The Capitol of the State of New York. 

Some question arose as to the sufficiency of a concurrent resolution, 
rather than a law, to designate what shall be the capitol of the State, 
but the attorney-general rendered an oiDinion upholding the adequacy 
of the resolution and at the next session of the legislature, Jan. 7, 
1879, the new capitol was formally occupied as the capitol of the State. 
The assembly chamber, the committee rooms of the two houses, and 
the governor's rooms were all ready for occupation, and the room in- 
tended for the court of appeals was fitted up for the senate. These 
were all occupied as designed, except the govei'nor's room, which was 
unoccupied, the governor preferring to remain in the executive room in 
the old capitol. 

The proceedings on the formal occupation of the new capitol were 
simple. Both bodies , gathered in the Assembly chamber of the old 
capitol, when the Senate, headed by Lieutenant-Governor Doesheimbk 
and Attorney-General SchoOnmakee, escorted the members of the 
Assembly to their new quarters. On reaching the Assembly chamber, 
Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimee took the chair, and after calling both 
bodies to order, said : 

The Senate has escorted the Assembly from the old capitol to the new one ; and 
now in this presence I declare these chambers formally transferred to the Legislature. 
The Senate will now retire to its own I'oom. 

The Senate then met in its chaniber, and after prayer by the chap- 
Iain, Kev. E. Halley, D. D., the President, Lieutenant-Governor 
DoESHEiMER, spolvo as foUows : 

Senators — I have during the last four years been so closely associated with the 
construction of the building, the partial completion of which we this day cele- 
brate, that I do not find any language in which it would be appropriate for me to 
address you. I will, therefore, .simply trespass upon your patience long enough to 
express the hope that you will find the ari'angements that have been made for you 
comfortable and satisfactory, and also tliat the most agreeable and friendly rela- 



Tjie New Capitol. 417 

tions whicli I have lierctofore enjoyed with each and all of yoii, may continue to 
the end of my term of otHee. Gentlemen, I welcome you to the temporary Sen- 
ate chamber. 

Regular legislative business was then proceeded with. 

The Assembly was called to order by Edwakd M. Johnson, clerk of 
the previous Assembly, and a prayer appropriate to the occasion was 
offered by the Rev. Ieving Magee, D. D., of Albany. The members 
present then took the oath of office, and adjourned until next day. 

Owing to the detentions occasioned by a severe snow storm, the 
House did not organize until Thursday, the 9th, when Hon. Thos. G. 
AlVord, of Onondaga, was elected speaker, and Edward M. Johnson, 
of Otsego, clerk. 

The Reception m Honor of the Event. 

A reception given by citizens of Albany took place in the new 
capitol on the evening of the 7th of January. Several thousand invi- 
tations were issued, and a large and Ijrilliant company, which included 
many distinguished citizens of this and other States, was assembled. 
The total number in attendance was estimated at upward of 8,000, a 
large proportion of whom were ladies. Music was fm-nished by Aus- 
tin's orchestra of Albany, in the main hall, and Gilmore's band of 
New York, in the Assembly chamber. Refreshments were served 
under a canopy in the open central court by Charles E. and Warren 
Leland. 

His honor, Michael N. ISTolan, mayor of Albany, assisted by the 
committee of citizens, received the guests in tlie room assigned to the 
use of the governor. Among those present during the evening were 
Hon. David M. Key, Postmaster-General ; Governor Lucirs Robin- 
son, and his Staff, the latter in uniform ; Ex-governor Horatio Set- 
MoiR ; cx-Governor John T. Hoffman ; all the present State officers, 
and numerous ex-State officers ; Judges of the Court of Appeals, and 
Justices of the Supreme Court; Members and ox-Meml)ers of Con- 
gress; Members andex-Memliors of the Senate; Members and ex-ilem- 
bere of the Assembly; together with eminent jurists, tlivines, journal- 
ists, publicists, and men of prominence in various walks of life. Let- 
ters of regret were received from President Hayes ; Vice-President 
Wheeler ; Wsi. M. Evarts, Secretary of State ; John Sherman, Sec- 



418 



Centennial Celebkations. 



retary of the Treasury ; the JVEarqnis of Lome, Governor-General of 
Canada ; Cardinal McCloskey ; ex-Secretary of State Hamilton Fish ; 
General W. T. Shekman ; ex-Governor Samuel J. Tilden ; ex-Gov- 
ernor Mteon H. Clauk ; "Wm. H. Vandeebilt, and many others who 
were unable to attend. 

The details of the reception were in charge of the following 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mayor M N. NOLAN, Chairman. CHARLES E. SMITH, Secretary. 

DUDLEY OLCOTT, Treasurer. 



Henry R. Piebson, 
Hamilton Harris, 
Erastus Corning, 
Daniel Manning, 
Charles E. Smith, 
Robert H. Pruyn, 
Wm. S. Paddock, 
Simon W. Rosendale, 
Matthew Hale, 
Robert S. Oliver, 



Henry Smith, 
Dudley Olcott, 
Rupus W. Peckham, 
J. Howard Kins, 
Amasa J. Parker, Jr. , 
John F. Smyth, 
Wm. Appleton, Jr., 
N. D. Wendell, 
Chas. R. Knowlbs, 
Thos. H. Greek, 



Henry Russell, 
Jacob S. Mosher, 
Charles E. Jones, 
Chas. P. Easton, 
Robert Lennox Banks, 
Frederick Townsend, 
j. c. cuyler, 
J. B. Thatceter, 
E. Prentice Tbeadwell. 



The event of the opening was further commemorated by a ball given 
by the Albany Burgesses corps and Old Guard, at Martin Opera House, 
which was largely attended and very successful. 



The Cost. 

From the books of the comptroller of the State, the following state- 
ment is taken of the actual amounts paid toward the building of the 
new capitol to the 1st of August, 1879. 



1863 , 

1864 

1865 

1866 

1867, 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1873 



$51, 593 66 

9,453 55 

10,860 08 

65,250 00 

10, 000 00 

50,000 00 

451, 315 63 

1,223,597 73 

483,942 37 

856,106 98 



1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879, to Aug. 1, 1879 . 



Jl, 175, 600 00 

610,375 16 

1, 393, 713 08 

908,487 93 

728, 220 20 

1,075,700 00 

794,527 85 

P, 896, 543 21 



©crxtpation 0f tlic Ticxxi Cix:pitcrL 



OCCUPATION OF THE NEW CAPITOL. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATURE OP THE STATE OP NEW 

YORK IN COMJIEMORATION OF ITS REMOVAL PKOJI 

THE OLD TO THE NEW CAPITOL. 



The New Capitol was occupied first by the legislature on Tuesday, 
January 7, 1879, the occasion being celebrated on the previous evening 
by a grand reception by the citizens of Albany within its walls. Some 
weeks later a formal commemoration was had, of which the following 
is a record taken from the proceedings of the two houses, as published 
by direction of the Legislature : 

STATE OF NEW TOEK : 

In Senate, 

Jomuary 23, 1879. 
On motion of Mr. Harris : 

Resolved, (If tlie Assembly concur), That a joint committee of three be 
appointed from cacli House to act in conjunction witli the New Capitol Commis- 
sioners, and arrange for a formal ceremony to commemorate the departure of tlie 
Legislature from the Old to the New Capitol. 

The President appointed as such coinmittec on the part of the 
Senate, Senators Harris, Robertson and Goodwin. 



In Assembly, 

January 23, 1879. 

Remhcfl, That the Assembly do concur in tlie resolution Mdoplid by the Senate, 
relative to a formal ceremony to commemorate the de|)arture of the Lcgi.slature 
from the Old to the New Capitol. 

The Speaker appointed as the eounnittee on the part of the 

Assembly, Messrs. Sloan, Husted and Brooks. 

t 
/ 

t 



422 Proceedings oe the Legislatuke. 

On the 28th day of Janiiaiy the joint committee, to which the sub- 
ject was referred, presented to the Legislature the following report, 
which was unanimously agreed to : 

To ilie Legislature : 

Your committee appointed by joint resolution of the two Houses, on the 33rd 
day of January, 1879, to consider the question of commemorating the removal of 
the Legislature from the Old to the New Capitol, beg leave respectfully to report 
as follows: 

We recommend that such removal be commemorated by the following observ- 
ances : 

The Senate and Assembly will meet in joint convention in the Assembly 
chamber, on the 12th day of February next, at seven and one-half o'clock, p. m. 

The Governor and his military staS, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals 
and the associate judges thereof, and the State officers, will be invited to be 
present. 

The order of procedure for the joint convention will be as follows : 

Prayer. 

Introductory address by the Lieutenant-Governor. 

Address by the Speaker. 

Historical address by Ebastds Brooks, member of Assembly. 

Benediction. 

We further recommend that a joint committee be appointed to carry out tlie 

foregoing arrangement of procedure. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

HAMILTON HARRIS, 
W. H. ROBERTSON, 
ALEXANDER T. GOODAVIN, 

Senate Committee. 

GEORGE B. SLOAN, 
J. W. HUSTED, 
ERASTUS BROOKS, 

AssemWy Committee. 
Janua/ry 38, 1879. 

The committee appointed by the joint resolution of the two Houses 
to consider the qiiestion of commemorating the departure of the Legis- 
lature from the Old to the New Capitol, was continued to carry out 
the observances recommended in the above report. 



In Senate, 

Fehruary 12, 1879. 

Seven o'clock and fifteen minutes, p. m. 

On motion of Mr. Hdghes : 

Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed to wait upon the Honorable 
the Assembly, and inform that body that the Senate is prepared to meet in joint 



OCCUPATIUN OF THE NeW CaPXTOL. 423 

assembly to coniiiicmoratr the fleparture of the Legislature from the Old to the 
New Capitol, pursuant to concurrent resolution provitling for the Same. 

The Pkesidknt announced as such committee Messrs. Hughes and 
Edick. 

Messrs. Husted and Holahai^, a conimittce on the part of the 
Assembly, appeared in the Senate, and announced that tlie Assembly 
was prepared to meet the Senate in joint assembly, jiursuant to concur- 
rent resolution of both Houses. 

Messrs. Hughes and Edick, the committee appointed to wait upon 
the Assembly, reported that they had discharged that duty. 



In Assejeblt, ) 

Felruary 12, 1879. f 
Seven o'clock and tifteeu minutes, p. m. 
On motion of Mr. Husted : 

Besoked, That a committee of two bo appointed to wait upon the Honorable 
the Senate, and inform that body that the Assembly is ready to meet them in joint 
assembly, pursuant to concurrent resolution previously adopted by the two 
Houses. 

The Speakee appointed as such committee Messrs. Husted and 

HOLAHAN. 

Messrs. Hughes and Edick, a committee appointed on the part of 
the Senate, appeared in the Assembly chamber and stated that they 
had been appointed on the part of the Senate to inform the A ssembly 
that the Senate was ready to meet the Assembly in joint convention. 

Messrs. Husted and Holahan, the committee appointed to wait 
upon the Senate, reported that they had discharged that duty. 

The Senate then proceeded to the Assembly chamber, preceded by 
the Lieutenant-Goveenok as President of the Senate. 

The Lieutenant-Governor then took the chair, by the side of the 
Speaker of the Assembly, and called the joint assembly to order. 

Eight Rev. William Ceoswell Doane, D. D., offered the following 

prayer : 

Almighty God, who hast revealed Thyself unto us in Tliy Holy Word as " our 
Judge, our Lawyer and our King," by whom alone " kings reign and princes 
decree justice;'' who "teachcst Senators \\'isdom "; we pray Thee to look with 
Thy favor upon tliis house, which lias been builded for framing, interpreting and 
administering law, whose " seat is the bosom of God, and her voice the harmony 
of the world . " 



424 Proceedings of the Legislatuee. 

Except the Lord build the liouse, their labor is but lost that build it. Protect 
Thou this house from unrighteousness, and these chambers from T\Tong . 

Thou art set in the throne that judgest aright ; give to Thy servants that sit on 
the seat of justice wisdom to minister true judgment unto Tliy people. 

Thou only magniflest the law and makestit honorable; grant that Thy servants 
who assemble here may receive the law IVom Thy mouth, and lay up Thy words 
in theu- hearts. 

To Thee only it appertaineth to punish and to pardon ; make the magistrates to 
bear not the sword in \'ain, and yet in wTath to remember mercy. 

Direct and prosper all the consultations of the two Houses of the Legislature 
for the enactment of just and equal laws, the preservation of liberty, the punish- 
ment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well. 

Bless Thy servants the Governor and the Lieutenant-Governor of this Common- 
wealth ; the officers of State and the judges. Enrich them with Thy heavenly 
grace ; dispose and turn their hearts as it seemeth best to Thy godly wisdom, 
that, knowing whose ministers they are, they may above all things seek Thy honor 
and glory ; and that we, duly considering whose authority they have, may faith- 
fully serve, honor and humbly obey them. 

Make us mindful of Thy mercies in the past, and faithful to the memories and 
traditions of truth and justice, of religion and patriotism, in those who have gone 
before us. 

The Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers. Let Him not leave 
us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts unto Him, to walk in all His 
ways and to keep His commaYidments and His statutes and His judgments which 
he commanded our fathers. 

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious favor, and further 
us with Thy continual help that in all our works begun, continued and ended in 
Thee, we may glorify Thy holy name, and finally by Thy mercy obtain everlasting 
life through Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath taught us to pray unto Thee, 
Almighty Father, in His prevailing name and words : 

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; 
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven; give us this day our daily bread, 
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead 
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the kingdom, and 
the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen. 

The President presented the following communication, whicli was 
read by the Clerk of the Senate : 

STAT.E OF NEW YORK : 

Executive Chambek, 

Albany, February 13, 1879. 

Hon. "William DoKSHErMER, Lieutenant-Governor : 

Deae Sir — I find, with extreme regret, that I shall be deprived of the privi- 
lege of listening to the addresses of yom-self, Speaker Alvord and Mr. Brooks, 
tliis evening, as I hoped to do. Every moment of my time is occupied with 
official duties of unusual urgency. I see, moreover, by the morning papers, that 
tlie ceremonies are expected to occupy three or four hours, aud I am advised by 
my oculist that there would l^e a great danger of entirely arresting the improve- 
ment going on with my eyes if I should expose them to the gas-liglits in the 



Occui'ATiuN OF THE Nkw Capitol. 425 

Assembly chamber eveu for one-fourth of that time, and lie protests against it 
most earnestly. I am, with great respect, yours, verj' truly, 

L. ROBINSON. 

Senator Robertson moved that a committee of two, one from eacli 
House, be appointed to wait upon the Judges of tlie Court of Appeals 
and tlie State officers, and inform them that the two Houses of the 
Legislature were met in joint convention, and prejjared to receive 
them. 

The President put tlie question wliether the joint assembly would 
agree to said motion, and it was determined in tlie affirmative. 

The Pkesident announced as such committee on the part of the 
Senate, Mr. Robertson. 

The Speaker announced as such committee on the part of the Assem- 
blj', Mr. Penfield. 

The committee then proceeded to the Executive chamber, and 
escorted the Judges of the Court of Appeals and State officers to the 
Assembly chamber, where they were received by the joint assembly, 
standing. 

Mr. Speaker Alvord then introduced Lieutenant-Governor Doe- 
shefmee, who addressed the Assembly as follows : 

Senators axv Gentlemen of tite Assembly: 

You have met in joint convention to commemorate the departure of the Legis- 
lature from the Old Capitol to the New one. As I understand your pui-pose, it is 
to recall the past, rather than [to dwell upon the present, or to anticipate the 
future. 

I have sometimes thought that reverence for places which are associated with 
the lives and achievements of the great is peculiar to modern times. But, with- 
out insisting upon so sweeping a statement, it may safely be said that the general 
education of the people, which is the chief glory of our century, was needed to 
awaken this feeling through great masses of men, and so make it powerful. In 
our day it has beromo a mighty force. A new bond between men and a cheap 
defense to nations. A treaty of peace which is negotiated by the memories and 
affections of mankind. It obliterates differences of race and language. It 
attaches to the cottage as well as to the palace ; to the low roof which sheltered 
Shakespeare's cradle, and to the ruins of the stately villa where Cicero sought 
retirement from strifes too rude for his temper; to the grotto in which Bruce cher- 
ished liis great design, and to the elm tree in wliose shade Washington first drew 
a rebellious sword ; to the window out of which King Charles stepped to meet 
the headsman, and to the wall on which Cromwell's head was shown ; to the hall 
where the last Irish parliament resisted the iiersuasion of Grattan's oratory, and to 
the quaint building in Philadelphia where the declaration was signed ; to the lofty 
Florentine fane which covers the tombs of Galileo and Jlichacl Angelo, and to the 
34 



426 Peoceedings of the Legislature. 

hallowed pavement beneath which Spencer and Ben Johnson, Dryden and Chatham, 
Dickens and Macaulay, Pitt and Fox are bm-ied. But how little is left to gratify a 
feeling so general and so tender? It is not long since Rome held the Mediterra- 
nean in her embrace, and to-day archaeologists dispute as to where the buUding 
was in which the Boman Senate sat and Caesar died. With ostentatious fountains 
and triumpliant monuments, Paris has hidden the site of the guillotine. The tide 
of business has swept Temple Bar out of London. Hancock's house has disap- 
peared from Boston, and historic names from the streets of Albany. A few pic- 
tures, a few statues, a few -ivritings, here and there a building, and most of them 
in ruin, are all that the mighty past has left us, all that man has done to justify 
his proud hope that he is immortal. 

It is a great misfortune that the building, which for seventy years has been the 
Capitol, must be taken away. That is the chief infelicity connected with the 
enterprise of building a New Capitol. Seventy years ago our country was resist- 
ing foreign encroachments by the Chinese device of an embargo. What a con- 
trast that to the multitudinous powers upon land and sea with which to-day the 
Republic would confront a foe ! Seventy years ago a few villages languished in the 
vaUey of the Hudson, and occasional settlements were scattered through the val- 
leys of the Mohawk and Delaware. The rest of our territory was still the home 
of savage life and the abode of savage men. What a contrast that with the pop- 
ulous and busy commonwealth of to-day ! 

During these seventy years New York has risen from the fourth to the first place 
among American States. This was not by accident, nor caused by a fortunate 
geographical position alone. It was, I think, worked out by -ndse statesmanship. 
New York owes her greatness to three lines of public policy sagaciously planned 
and persistently pursued ; one material, one intellectual and one moral. I shall 
speak of these not in the order of historic succession, but in the order in which I 
have named them. 

The policy which established the material prosperity of this State, was that by 
which channels of transportation between tlie east and the west were constructed, 
and have since been maintained and administered, not as sources of public reve- 
nue, but as instruments for the conti-ol of commerce. This gave us both the 
domestic and foreign trade, and to it we owe our wealth. It was to be expected 
that a people who were the descendants of the merchants of England and Hol- 
land, would succeed in the strife for commercial supremacy in this country. 

The second great policy was that by which the State provided for the educa- 
tion of the people. This we owe to Holland. John of Nassau wrote to his 
brother William the Silent, these memorable words : 

You must urge upon the States-General, that they should establish free schools, where chil- 
dren of quaUty, as well as of poor families, for a very small sum, could be well and Christianly 
educated and brought up . This would be the greatest and most useful work you could ever 
accomplish for God and Christianity, and for the Netherlands themselves. Soldiers and patriots, 
thus educated, with'a true knowledge of God and a Christian conscience; also churches and school- 
houses and printing presses, are butter than all armies, armories, alhances and treaties that can 
be had or imagined in the world. 

These are noble sentences to have written amidst the tumult of Spanish war. 
A precious legacy to us from one of the fathers of our State. 

All the patents issued by the States-General conveying lands in this colony, 
required that a school should be maintained upon every grant, and so at the first 
schools were established. 



Occupation of the New Capitol. 427 

On the 21st of January, 1784, soon aft it tlie conclusion of peace with England 
Governor George Clinton addressed the Legislature as follows: 

Neglect ot the education of youth is among tlie evils consequent on war. Perhaps there is 
scarce any thing more.worthy your attention than the revival and encouragement ot seminaries 
of learning ; and nothing by which we can more satisfactorily express our gratitu<le to the 
Supreme Being for His past favors ; since piety and virtue are generally the ofTspring of an 
enlightened understanding. 

Accordingly at that session a bill was passed, dated May 1, 1784, which estab- 
lished the University. 

In 1787 the first step toward the creation of a system of free schools was taken 
by the Regents of the University. A committee, of which John Jay and Alex- 
ander Hamilton were members, and of which James Duane, Mayor of New York, 
was the chairman, in their report used the following language : 

Uut before your committee conclude, they feel themselves bound, in faithfulness to add, that 
the erecting of public schools for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, is an object of very 
great importance, which ought not to be left to the discretion of private men, but be promoted by 
public authority. 

In 1795 the first "act for the encouragement of schools" was passed. By it 
twenty thousand pounds were annually appropriated for the term of five years, 
for the purpose of "encouraging and maintaining schools in the several cities and 
towns in this State, in which the children of the inhabitants, residing in the 
State, shall be instructed in the English lanwuaKe or be taught Ensrlish crranimar, 
arithmetic, mathematics and such otlier branches of knowledge as arc most useful 
and necessary to complete a good English education." 

Following this, after many unsuccessful attempts, in 1805 an act was passed to 
raise a fund for the encouragement of common schools. 

The whole .system was thus established: First, common schools to be supported 
by taxation. Second, academies to be encouraged by liberal annual grants. 
Third, the University to supervise and control the colleges, and seminaries of 
higher education. The head was made first, and it is to be observed that the 
University was so framed, that under its guardianship all the denominations, 
Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic, might establish schools 
and colleges for the teaching of their tenets, but the LTniversity was of no sect, 
and knew no religious differences or distinctions. 

This system of education has made ours an intelligent and liberal community. 
It has enabled us to easily take to ourselves and assimilate those who came to us 
from foreign lands. It gave us .skill to use the advantages of our position and 
work out our marvellous prosperity. It gave to our legislation such excellence that 
our Constitutions have been the models upon which many States have been formed, 
and that our laws have been copied by the legislatures of every American, and ol 
many foreign countries. The geological survey of New York has given a nomen- 
clature to the science of geology, and our codification of the law has instructed 
the jurisprudence of every people to whom the common law is administered. Not 
only has New York influenced other States and nations ; it has become the very 
type and representative of American civilization. A poet describes Kent as the 
"very England of England," and so we may say that here is the America of 
America. 

The third muniment of our greatness has been the toleration of all races, creeds, 
opinions and churches. Religious hatred never governed here. Thire was never 
here any religious test to office or citizenship; nor was any man ever punished by 



428 Peocbedlngs of the Legislature. 

this government on the score of his faith. We are so used to this blessing that 
we do not know its worth. But, when one recalls the fierce strifes of sect which 
filled Europe at a time when this colony welcomed every sect — when one recalls 
the gloomy superstitions amid which New England passed her childhood — when 
one recalls the great effort it cost England in our own day to relieve Ireland from 
a church to which the people were aliens, we may appreciate at its real value this 
the consummate flower of Christian charity and statesmanship. 

These three policies working in harmony have made New York great. Com- 
merce has made her people rich; teaching has made them wise; and charity has 
taught them that to preserve their own freedom, they must secure liberty to 
others. 

It does not need the vision of a prophet to see that these policies will be con- 
tinued. You are the heirs of the past. It is your jjart to keep and add to your 
great heritage. There can be no cause for fear. Whatever may be necessary to 
retain our commercial supremacy will be done. Our intellectual advancement will 
not be stayed. Schools of art have already been established, and the collection of 
libraries and museums has been begun. Special aptitudes can now be developed, 
and the artisan, however poor, may now learn the most subtle secrets of his craft. 
If Providence should ever give us one of those His most precious gifts — should 
ever raise up among us one of those men who only come rarely and after long in- 
tervals — one who might be to us what Aristotle was to Greece, Cicero to Rome, 
Michael Angelo to Italy, Cervantes to Spain, Goethe, to Germany, and Victor 
Hugo to France — a man strong enough, even though all other record were lost, 
to save and transmit the name and fame of a nation — should such an one be sent, 
we may believe that, as hitherto, the wonderful child will be found not on the 
couch of the rich, but upon the pallet of the poor. Shall it then happen that 
that immortal light shall be put out by the cold winds of penury, and that the 
fair flower of genius shall fade and wither amidst darkness and neglect ? No, he 
will be sure to find that a generous country has prepared for him, even though he 
be the humblest of her children, an easy road to learning, and ' ' a Ijroad approach 
to fame." 

I need not say, that there is no danger that we will ever introduce here that 
spirit of intolerance, which has stained every page of European history. 

Senators and gentlemen, the peojsle of New York have been too busy with the 
present and future to think of the past, too much employed in making and carry- 
ing out enterprises of government and business, to find leisure for the contempla- 
tion of what they or theii- ancestors have done. It needs an event like the present 
one to persuade us to tm'u and read the glowng record. He must be cold, indeed, 
who can cast his eyes upon the past without honorable pride, and without sorrow 
that it is necessary to take away the building in which these triumphs were won. 
We find one complete justification for the construction of a capitol of such dura- 
bility, that we may expect it to last as long as there shall be any one to take an 
interest in it; and that is that those who shall come after us may never need to 
make the sacrifice of priceless associations which we are compelled to make. 
The traditions which shall gather here — the lives which here shall be given to 
generous and patriotic purposes — the eloquence which here shall teach noble 
lessons — the strifes through which each forward step shall here be taken — the 
measures which shall be framed here to soften the hard conditions and level the 
cruel inequalities of fortune — all these will presently cover this aspiring vault 



Occupation of tue New Capitol. 429 

with ail Araliesque of sweet memories more delicate than any the hand lias ever 
chiseled, and will spread upon its colors mori beautiful than any pencil can 
describe. 

When our future shall be the past, it must be. that those who shall live then 
will rejoice that the capitol has been built so strong, that its associations and its 
traditions will endure to the latest generation. 

At the conclusion of liis address, Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer 
resumed the chair, and introduced Mr. Speaker Thomas G. Alvokd, 
who addressed the Assembly as follows : 

Senators axd Gentlemen op the Assembly : 

Owing to my official position, conferred upon me by the kindness of my fellow- 
members, I have been selected by the committee of arrangements as one of the 
speakers on this memorable occasion, and they have sandwiched me between 
the gentleman who has just addressed you, and the gentleman who will make the 
closing speech. Tliis is the cause of somewhat of embarrassment ; for I follow 
the eminent lawyer, the wise statesman, the good executive officer — a gentleman 
from whose lips always drops the honey of eloquence ; and I am to be followed by 
a gentleman who stands pre-eminent among his fellows as one of the most accom- 
plished journalists of the day — a gentleman, in profound scholarship not inferior 
to any in our country. But inasmuch as a simple duty has been imposed upon 
me tills evening' I shall endeavor to discharge it with the least possible attempt at 
a speech beyond the bare statistical recital. 

The committee have assigned to me the duty of reviewing the personnel of those 
who, in various capacities, have occupied the Old Capitol; and in the perform- 
ance of this task, I have found my way made easy by the able and eloquent dis- 
course which you have just listened to. The eloquent speaker has given the 
results of the action of the people through its legislative and executive bodies. I 
propose briefly to review the men who, in their various official capacities, have 
successfully and well performed their work. 

The Old Capitol — whose requiem we sing to-night, mingled with the joy that 
this New Capitol, rising phccnix-like from its down-fall, is to be, in the eloquent 
language of the gentleman who preceded me, " perpetuated until legislatures and 
legislators will no longer be necessary" — that Old Capitol has had centered in it, and 
from its hall has come, all the wise legislation that has made our State a great 
and prosperous commonwealth. 

Permit me somewhat to tresjiass on the province of the gentleman who is to suc- 
ceed me, and to claim the privilege to relate a matter of history. The Old Capi- 
tol was erected and first occupied at a period in our history when almost the 
whole of its occupants were men who had passed through the throes of the Revo- 
lution — men who have stood pre-eminent in caiii]i and in field; in the forum on 
all occasions defending and supporting the rights of our fathers in the great 
struggle for American Independence. Those were the men who first met in the 
Old Capitol, the end of which we are to night commemorating. And, fellow-leg- 
islators, it may be profitable to pass in review their acts, and the men who have 
been in the positions we occiqiy to-day. 

We have, as the first Governor inaugurated in the Old Capitol, Daniel D. Tomp- 
kins, a name historical — grandly historical — not alone for his conceded executive 



430 Peoceedings of the Legislature. 

ability, but also that in the war for our second independence, at a time when the 
North — not then the South — threatened secession; in those days standing up 
boldly and manfully for the people's rights, he girded on with the sword o£ State 
the sword of battle, and led his column of our State troops, who, under his com- 
mand, successfully and triumphantly fought in support of our great Union in its 
glorious struggle for sailor's rights and commercial freedom. 

Next comes De Witt Clinton, whose name and fame were known of all men 
long before he occupied the chair of state in the Old Capitol. Among many great 
acts performed, one stands out prominent in his history. It has been well and 
truthfully said, to-night, that the opening up of our highways of commerce was 
one of the great acts of the past that has won for us the title we hold, proudly 
and rightfully — the Empire State of the Union. Clinton has the reputation, and 
he has the right to claim it, of opening up that great water highway of com- 
merce connecting the river of om' State — the North, or Hudson's river — with the 
great lakes of the west. But just here, while I willingly accord to Clinton all 
that history and his surviving friends claim for him, 1 take personal — no, not per- 
sonal, but local pride, in claiming for my county and people that Joshua For- 
man, one of its members of the Assembly in 1808 — the year before the occupation 
of the Old Capitol — introduced, advocated and procm-ed the passage of a meas- 
ure ai^propriating the sum of $000 — a large sum in the days of our fathers — for 
the purpose of a survey and examination as to the feasibility of constructing 
and operating a canal from the western lakes to the tide-waters of the ocean, 
within the limits of our State ; and following up that action, another of Onon- 
daga's sons — the Hon. James Geddes — as one of the first engineers and surveyors, 
employed, determined the practicability of the measure, which was afterward 
tested by the people under the guidance of Clinton in the completion of that great 
and world renowned water-highway — the Erie canal. 

Next conies Martin Van Bnren. Is it necessary for me to recite any thing in 
regard to this man? No matter what might have been party feeling and party 
animosity in his day, all must acknowledge that he was one of the great, one of 
the powerful, one of the strong men of our State and nation. 

Marcy's name is a liousehold word with all of us. 

Seward — is it necessary at this time, when so shortly in the past he has gone 
to his final rest, for me to say aught to his memory — interwoven, as his life was, 
from its beginning to the end, with all that was beneficial and advantageous to 
the people — standing square on the ground that education should be given 
broad and widecast to the whole people — believing in and practicing the doctrine 
of equal rights in all matters of religious belief — and in the dark days of the 
republic, nobly supporting the bulwarks of the Constitution — claiming that the 
sinew, blood and treasure of the country, in putting down the great rebellion, 
should be freely expended for our salvation as a n.ation — his is a name ever to 
be remembered with pride, gratitude, and reverence, by the people of his native 
State. 

Bouck — associated as he was, from an early day, ^^ath our great woiks of internal 
improvement — a man who was not hampered by Canal Boards and Canal Auditors, 
but, trusted by his people, and putting into his saddle-bags the money necessary 
to pay for work performed, mounting his old white horse, riding from one end to 
the other of the canals, not only to pay the workmen, but also to see that their 
work was well and honestly done ; and as a good and faithful servant, rendering 




G-RAND CORRIDOR, NEW CAPITOL. 



Occupation of the New Capitol. 431 

a just and true arcoiiiit for every rent expended — that man slio\ild be long and 
well remembered by the people of his State. 

Silas Wright, John Young — I would consume more than the time allotted me, 
if I should dilate upon the history of these two gentlemen; tliey are a part and 
parcel of the State's history, and in the hurried manner that want of time de- 
mands, Ijnust leave the memory of tlieir aets and virtues to your own recoUeetion. 

As Lieutenant-Governors, prior to 18-ll>, again we have I)e Witt Clinton, and, 
among many worthies, a Root, a Bradish, a Dickinson, and a Gardner. 

Of Governors, since 1846, we have Hamilton Fish, a name synonymous with 
honor and integi-ity, justly honored in the near path with still higher distinction 
in the annals of his country. A Hunt, a Seymour, who from the small beginning 
of member of Assembly, as you and I are now, my fellow-members, has risen, 
step by step, to the proud position he occupies to-day, and whose even feeling p\il- 
sates, and whose whole soul is tilled with anxiety for the further enlargement of the 
great proportions of the Erapii-e State, in all that makes it glorious and pow- 
erful. 

Then follow, acting each his i)art worthily and well, a King, a Morgan, the war 
Governor, a Hoffman, a Dix. 

Under the new regime, we record as Lieutenant-Governors, Hamilton Pish, San- 
ford E. Church, George W. Patterson, Henry J. Raymond, Henry R. Selden, David 
R. Floyd-Jones. 

We have many others wlio have aided to do the great work, of which cm- 2)re- 
siding otiieer has fitly spoken, but time will not jii'mut any but a mere selection of 
prominent and historical names. 

Flagg, Dix, John C. Spencer, Samuel Young, prior to 1846, were Secretaries of 
State. Marcy, Silas Wright, Flagg and Collier, were of the number of Comp- 
trollers. Van Vechten, Martin Van Buren, Talcott, Bronson, Beardsley, Hall, 
Barker, .Tohn Van Buren, Attorney-Generals. Simeon De Witt was for half a 
century Surveyor-General. 

Let us for a moment retm-n to the old names, many contemporaneous with the 
earlier days, and who helped to build up the great commercial interests of our 
State, and we find as Canal Commissioners, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Young, 
Henry Seymour, William C. Bouck, Jonas Earl and Jlichael Hoffman. 

The Constitutions of 1831 and 1840, the first partially, and the last radi- 
cally, changed the manner of the appointment and choice of many State and local 
officers; both of the conventions framing these constitutions held their sittings in 
the Old Capitol. Prior to the Constitution of 1821, the Governor presided over 
and had a casting vote in the Council of Appointment, and this council made 
almost all of the officials, both military and civil, as well for the counties as the 
State, and this, finally, reached over l.'),000 in number. Up to that period, voters 
were required to possess a certain amount of property, and the same rule was 
applicable to .certain officers. In 1821 the Constitution abolished the property 
qualification and the Council of Appointment, and gave to the Governor, by and 
with the advice and consent of the .Senate, nominations and appointments to 
office; among others, all judicial officers were thus made, except justices of the 
peace, whom the people were ])i-rmitted to elect. The Constitution of 1846 
broadened the elective rights of the people, and largely restricted the gubernato- 
rial power of appointment; all these changes, these mile-stones in the progress 
toward pure republican government, were made in the Old Capitol. 



432 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

Among Secretaries of State since 1846, we find tlie names of Morgan of Cayuga, 
Lcaveuwortli of Onondaga, Hcadlj', Jones, Depew and Nelson. As Comptrollers, 
Fillmore, Hunt, Church — his name we find frequently, and deservedly so, as an 
officer in the State government — Denniston, Robinson, Allen, J. M. Cook. As 
Attorney-Generals, Jordan, Ogden Hoffman, Tremain, Dickinson, Martindalc, 
Pratt. As Canal Commissioners, Cook, Ruggles, Bruce, Hayt. 

We come now to the legislative branch of our government, where, as said to- 
night by the Lieutenant-Governor, all the laws which laid the foundation for the 
greatness of our commonwealth were introduced, perfected and jjassed. 

In the Senate prior to 184G, among other distinguished names, we notice De 
Witt Clinton, Livingston and Taylor; since that time, Lott, Jones, Sanford, Den- 
niston, Clark, Young, Joshua A. Spencer, Hand, Porter, Hard, and a host of 
others, their worthy compeers. 

I trust that I give oifense to none by the failm-e to mention other names, for 
time and your patience forbid a further recital. 

In the olden times of the Old Capitol we find as members of Assembly, among 
many others equally worthy, a Van Rensselaer, a Van Vechten, a Cady, a Michael 
Hoffman, and a Loomis; and since 1846, our branch of the Legislature has held 
largely of the best and ablest men of the State. 

In reference to the judiciary, permit me to say that among the many who have 
shown themselves nobly superior in the administration of justice,- 1 find filenames 
of Kent, Sanford, Jones, Walworth, both as chancellors and judges; and as 
judges of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, Thompson, Spencer, Savage, 
Nelson, Bronson, Beardsley, Piatt, Marcy, Jewett, Johnson, Denio, Comstock, 
both the Seldens, Porter, Hunt, Foster, Mason, and many others. 

Gentlemen, I have thus briefly recited to you the names of a few of the many 
distinguished men to whom this State owes a debt of gratitude it can never pay ; 
men who really worked for and established solidly, I trust permanently, not only 
the present, but the future prosperity and greatness of the Empire State. 

We are here to-night for the purpose of celebrating the inauguration of this 
great building, and we are here. Senators and gentlemen of the Assembly, judges 
and officers of State, to see to it that, under tlie circumstances which surround us, 
by the names and deeds of the great men of whom we have heard this evening, 
we shall use our utmost endeavor to take no backward step, but to the fullest of 
our ability, what these men did for our State we will affirm and preserve ; we will 
so inaugurate this New Capitol that no shame shall attach to our names ; we will 
make this arena a platform upon which shall be built still further prosperity and 
increasing honor to our beloved State. 

We are placed in a different position from those who preceded us. In the days 
of the past Senators and Assemblymen, selected from large districts and a sparse 
population, were chosen with great care ; their popularity and reputation were 
not localized, but were State-wide ; they came here with no anxiety for special 
legislation, but for the enactment of broad and general laws, taking in the inter- 
ests of the whole people ; they had no petty jealousies, no private interests, no 
desire each to build up his own locality at the expense of the rights of any other; 
but they aimed to pass wise and good laws for the benefit of all. 

The adoption of the Constitution of 1846 led to almost a democratic govern- 
ment, in the broadest sense of the word — I speak in no offensive sense; I mean 
an absolute democracy — making a town meeting of the Legislature. The Legis- 
lature was overbm-dened and overwhelmed with the consideration of local and pri- 



Occupation of the New Capitol. 433 

vate interests. Su(,li bills were always to be p.isscd in preference to legislation of 
great and general importance. 

The Constitution adopted by tlie Convention of 18C7-8 laid down the principle 
that we should return to the ways of our fathers; that, as far as possible, all pri- 
vate and local legislation should cease, and that, in the main, general laws, appli- 
cable to the whole State, should be enacted. The people repudiated that Consti- 
tution; but it is with pride and pleasure that I claim the right to-night to say — 
as I see here many who were with me in that Convention — piece by piece the 
people, realizing the justice and great value of our i)roi)Ositions, have, in the 
main, since adopted nearly all of them. We are now to have general laws; 
we are, as far as possible, inhibited from the passage of local or private bills ; 
now we may fondly hope that in the future our State will progress to a still higher 
position of Empire among her kindred States of our Union. 

Tlie Pkesident then introduced Hon. Eeastds Brooks, who addressed 
the Assembly as follows : 



ADDRESS OF HON. ERASTUS BROOKS. 

GENTIiEMEN OF THE SENATE, OF THE ASSEMBLY, AND FeLLOW CITIZENS: 

The opening of the State Capitol in the 102d year of the legislative history of 
the Commonwealth, so soon following the session, which a j'ear ago commenced 
the second centurj' of our connected legislative record, demands some special 
notice at our hands. The age of the Old Capitol was just three-score and ten 
years, and some there arc now living who remember the laying of the corner- 
stone, and who may survive its final removal. The probable age of the New need 
not enter into calculation ; but our prayer is that the future may prove in all that 
is patriotic, wise and prosperous, at least equal to the past. The New Capitol, like 
the Old, though not founded upon a rock, is set upon a hill, and built of granite; 
it is for all time. The Old has a history of events with hardly a parallel in the 
history of the Republic, and the city of Albany, at one time called the Colonial 
Capitol, eclipses all localities as the place where the union of the colonies was first 
inspired, if not consummated. Albany was the seat of the real union in the Con- 
gress of 1754, iis New York city was the colonial center in the Congress of 1765. 
It was just here that Franklin and his compeers, and Franklin especially, sowed 
the seeds of liberty which gradually ripened, in 1775, in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence; but away back of this, in 1691, \mdcr WUIiam and Mary, the New 
York Colonial Assembly asserted, in manly spirit and noble words, the rights and 
privileges which belonged to the subjects of the Crown in the Province of New- 
York, and from that year on there was an annual Assembly. These early meet- 
ings were held in New York city, and from 1777-8, some of them in Kingston 
and Poughkeepsie. In the years of the past, the States have grown from thirteen 
Colonies to thirty-eight Commonwealths. Our fathers found here, whatever their 
beginning, the best blood of the Indian race, of whose real origin we know so 
little, and the fathers came before the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth, or of 
the Virginia colonists at .Jamestown. 

These Indians are known as the " Five Nations," and to name them is (o prove 
their courage in battle, their eloquence in council, their wisdom in government. 



434 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

and this not less when they acted together in cases of emergency, than when they 
acted as independent tribes. These tribes — tlie Mohawlis, the Oneidas, the 
Onondagas, tlie Cayugas and the Senecas — were the Five Nations of the English 
and the Iroquois of the French. They formed a confederacy which was recog- 
nized from Nova Scotia to the Mississippi, and here, where we meet to-night, then 
called by the Iroquois " the ancient place of treaties," and then, as now, the old- 
est chartered town and city in the United States, * they were oftener the friends 
of the feeble white and red men than their enemies ; and, with all their faults, I 
venture to say, that but for their friendshi]) with the Dutch, New York, in their 
day, would have been almost an unknown land, and the independence of the 
people a long postponed event. 

If the love of religious liberty was the secret of the change desired by the Pil- 
grims of old England, we must remember that Holland was both the place of 
theu' debarkation and the land where they first found a welcome. The intended 
destination of the Mayflower, as she lifted her anchor first at Delft-haven, then at 
South Hampton and later at old Plymouth, was the bay of New York, but an 
overruling Providence directed the ship to the coast of Massachusetts. First 
Cape Cod was sighted and then Plymouth. So, also, the Virginia Colony — des- 
tined for North Carolina — was by a tempest driven into Chesapeake bay. 

Always, in great events — • 

" There is a divinity that shapes our ends. 
Rough hew them how we will." 

Our present interest, however, is in New York, whose colonization, like that of 
New England and Virginia, forms an epoch in the liistory of the world. We 
justly praise the Pilgrims, who left their homes and crossed the sea for freedom 
to worship God. The Dutch came, if need be, to repeat the story of the Nether- 
lands, and that story means all of independence that belongs to the republic of 
that name. It begins, indeed, in the terrible reign of Philip II, aiming to crush 
out every trace of civil and religious liberty in old Holland. It recalls the honored 
names of Egmont and Horn, of Barneveldt and Grotius, of Erasmus and Maurice, 
and in art the marvelous skill and taste of Rembrandt and Rubens. Eleven years 
and two months before the embarkation of the Pilgrims, the Half-Moon, Henry 
Hudson, commander, entered Sandy Hook, just where the Maj'flower was directed 
to sail. Hudson's employers, once London merchants, but now the East India 
Company, sent him in search of some nearer route to Asia than by the Cape of 
Good Hope, and his purpose was to reach China via some-to-be-discovered north- 
west passage. He believed he could pass through the waters dividing Spitzbcrgen 
from Nova Zembla. Icebergs, then as since, jjresented etei'nal barriers through 
wliich no ship could pass. From Newfoundland via Cape Cod on to the mouth 
of the James river, thence to Delaware bay, thence again to the high hills of the 
Navesink, stopping as he came by the coast of Maine to cut a fore-mast from the 
forest, was the work of but a few days, and the Half-Moon, a yacht of eighty 
tons, which started for China, picked up at James river on tlie 18th of August, 
and passed the Highlands of New Jersey on the 3d of September. The river 
which bears Hudson's name he took to be an arm of tlie sea, leading, it might be, 
to the Pacific and on to the eastern shores of Asia; but the nearer discovery of 

* In 1686 Albany wa-s incorporated as a city. Peter Schuyler and Robert Livingston were sent to 
New York to receive its charter, whicli, on their return, was proclaimed " \rith aU ye joy and 
acclamation imaginable." 



Occupation of tiik Nkw Capitol. 435 

land, whoso uplands divided waters flowing botli into the St. Lawrence and the 
Mississippi, the great water shed of tlie cold north and the warm south; the great 
passage way also in time from the lakes to the Hudson, and from the Hudson to 
the sea, was a discovery of vastly more importance to our own commerce, and to 
the trade and prosperity of the world, than all the wealth and honors which could 
have come from the fulfillment of his earliest and best expectations. 

This is not the time nor place to compare what followed from the New York, 
the Jamestown and the Plymouth landings, nor the relative advantages and 
adventures of Captain John Smith, Sir Walter Raleigh and Henry Hudson. The 
bay of New York, and " the great river," as the Hudson was then called, charmed 
the eyes of the few beholders as they looked out for the first time from their little 
vessel, as they have delighted the vision of manj- millions since. The great nav- 
igator, who liad already traversed nearly all the known seas, and approached 
nearer the pole than anj- one born before liim, as his vessel lay at anchor oil the 
shore where is now the present town of Yonkers, wrote home, that "it was as 
fair a land as can be trodden by the foot of man." But the greater beauty of the 
Hudson, then as now, was beyond the Highlands. Just what its charms are we all 
know. The Danube has more of history, and the Rhine castles an older record, 
and our own great American rivers more commerce, and vaster proportions of 
length, breadth and of great connecting waters inland to the wonderful west, but 
where in all our laud or in any land, as a whole, is there a river of more real 
grandeur, or of such varied beauty as the Hudson?* 

Contrast, too, the warm Indian welcome to the Half-Moon and Hudson by the 
River Indians, as they were called, 209 years ago, with the almost daily Indian 
strife, and bloodshed of the past fifty years. The little vessel seemed to come 
from the Great Spirit, and with its sails spread to the breeze to wing its way as 
from some celestial sphere. 

Say what we may of those we call North American savages (and the subject is 
important in the light of present discussion), there, remains the fact, not to be 
blotted out, that Hudson, a stranger to their shores, and in pursuit of gain and 
fame for a foreign power, was welcomed by the natives, with rare exceptions, all 
along the river which bears his name, from the Island of Manhattan to the Kats- 
kills, and beyond to the capital of the State. He found here a simple and happy 
race of beings, living upon maize, beans and fish, smoking their copper pipes 
with earthen bowls — a fact proving that there lived upon this continent a race 
of semi-civilized people, wliich makes the year 1609 comparatively a period of 
modern time. Indeed, Vcrrazani, nearly a hundred years before, had rounded 
the headlands of the Navesink and anchored in the same bay of New York, 
remaining there until the stonn drove him seaward, to \-isit. as he did, 900 leagues 
of coast, or from Cape Fear to Newfoundland. The River Indians were found 
eager for traffic, and, at least, were as fair at a bargain as those who came from 
the old world to the new in pursuit of rewards and honors and wealth. 

Near the now great city of the new world, but nearer the Jersey shore than our 
own — though belonging to the waters of New York by its earliest charter — the 
Indians presented themselves in the aiitumii time, clad in gay feathers and heavy 
furs won from the games and sports of their own forests. The autumn foliage in 
its grandeur of crimson and gold, green and purple, in itself a mass of beauty, 

•Hudson called the river which bears his name " The Groat River of the Mountains." the 
Dutch, " The Great North Hiver of the New Netherlands," and the natives the ihihenan, the Man- 
hattcs, while tbe Mohicans knew the river by the name of the CohohataUa. 



436 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

made a picture which needed but the bhie above and the bhie below to be pro- 
nounced perfect, and witli the active life of the Indians bartering on the water in 
their light canoes, the scene was almost one of enchantment. Wherever the Half- 
Moon moved on the Hudson she received a hospitable welcome. Reaching the 
shores of the Katskills, where is now Hudson city, this welcome became an ova- 
tion. The chief, whose years and honors gave him precedence, invited the master 
of the seas to his wigwam, and there all the hospitalities of the now despised 
race — most despised where most wronged — was bestowed upon Hudson and his 
companions. In return, just then, they received none of that iire-water which, at 
the hands of heartless Indian traders and other men of greed, have since killed so 
many natives of the forest, and so many pale-faces of both town and country, but 
rather hospitality seen in the abundance of the last year's harvest, piled up in 
high stacks and pyramids witliin a vast circular building constructed of oak bark. 
The beans and maize found here were enough to fill three ships, and while the 
elders received theh- visitors with the ease and grace which belonged to their 
chief and race, the yoimg men were in the forest with their bows and arrows pro- 
viding game for their guests. The feast, when prepared, made a repast which 
even kings might desire and their subjects crave. The corn, or succotash, was 
served to their guests seated on mats, and nature's fingers, no doubt, were in part 
a substitute for our present steel carvers and silver knives and forks. But the 
tokens of good-will did not end here, and as the captain re-embarked for his 
ship, these (so-called) savages broke their arrows into pieces as a pledge of per- 
petual peace. 

" Of all the lands I have seen," the navigator wrote home, " this is the best for 
tillage; " and he would have added, if need be: ." Of all the strange people I have 
met, these natives of the forest are, at least, as capable as the best of mankind 
for reciprocal hospitality and friendship." So, at least, the apostle Eliot found 
them in Massachuetts, Roger Williams in Rhode Island, John Smith in Virginia, 
and William Penn in Pennsylvania. 

It is worthy of remembrance, also, that twelve years after Hudson's visit to the 
Hudson river, a treaty of peace was made with the Indians which continued for 
more than fifty years, and which would have endured for a century or more, but 
for the interference of those vicious intermeddlers and numerous bus3'-bodies who 
are usually more successful in marring friendships than in maintaining peace and 
good-will among men. This was true of the Five nations of New York ; and the 
Hollanders commenced an alliance which bid fair to continue for generations, but 
for the tyrannny of the one bad man Kieft; who flr.st disturbed the common har- 
mony, and then destroj'cd all hopes of peace. No Indian treaty or agreement was 
ever broken (it is due to the truth of history to state) while the Dutch held power 
in the territory. 

Alas! for the sad ending of the life of poor Hudson. His own people, only a 
year after his sail up and down the Hudson, were his murderers. On the coast of 
Greenland four of his own crew, all dying men, with his son, his companion also 
to the new world, were set adrift upon the merciless waters. While the distant 
north sea became his place of burial, his best monument is the beautiful river 
flowing by the capitol of our State. All we know of him in the end is that, with 
his eyes streaming with tears, he gave his last crust of bread to men so maddened 
by hunger that they banished their commander and best friend from their pres- 
ence, and from all probable hopes of safety. 

With Hudson it was as with the more renowned John and Sebastian Cabot, over 



Occupation of the New Capitoi,. 437 

one hundred years earlier, and with the brilliant Florentine, Verrezani. No man 
knows the sepulchre of either of these great navigators and new- world discoverers. 
The voyages of the Northmen, who visited New England far back in the pre-Co- 
lumbian age; that of Biarne, in 98G, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, and driven 
southward upon tlic Amci-ican coast; of Laif, tlio son of Eric the Red, in the year 
1000; of Karlsifne, who spent three years at >[ount Hope, R. I., in 1007, and on, 
while matters of much speculation, are also facts of history, if we are to credit the 
past; but it is almost sad, after long research, to see how little we really know of 
the earliest men and earliest times in the discovery of America, and even of our 
own State. But, happily, there is much that is known and proved beyond all 
cavil. 

The Dutch, five years after the first great navigator had left our shores, were es- 
tablished at Castle Island, on the Hudson, just south of Albany, where for years 
they were engaged in the profitable trade of furs and peltries with the Indians, 
and in 1028, two hundred and fifty years ago, the Dutch Reformed Church and 
school were planted in the city of New York. 

In the meantime the Unrest, Adrian Block in command, a little yacht of sixteen 
tons, passed up the East river, and found her way by Long Island Sound to Mon- 
tauk Point and so on to Rhode Island and Nahant. 

Some of the most interesting revelations in the early civil history of New 
Tork may be traced to the thirty years' war in Germany; to the Reformation in- 
spired by Luther; to the fierce strifes between conservative and radical Protes- 
tants; to the burning of Servetus, and to the harsh doctrines and dogmas of John 
Calvin. The whole Dutch system was, indeed, then Calvinistic throughout ; but 
in the Colony of New York it was much more. Here from the beginning the 
maxim was, as it was later in the United Colonies: " In union there is strength." 
Even before the Revolution of 1688 by five years, and eight years before Massa- 
chusetts asserted the right of her citizens as free subjects of England, the New 
York bill of rights proclaimed that supreme legislative power should forever be 
and reside in the Governor, Council, and people in the General Assembly. Among 
these recited rights were trial by jury; freedom from taxation, except by their own 
consent; exemption from martial law, the quartering of soldiers upon citizens, 
and perfect toleration to all persons professing faith in Christ. Twenty years later, 
or in 1708, the New York General Assembly resolved first, that every freeman in 
the Colony had perfect and entire property in his goods and estate ; and second, 
that the im])osing and levying of any moneys upon Her Majesty's subjects of this 
Colony, under any pretense or color whatsoever, without consent in General As- 
sembly, is a grievance and a violation of the ])eople"s property. 

If, in 1029, the States-General of Holland had been as wise as their English 
successors, they never would have granted, as in tlieir Assembly XIX, and by 
State Commissioners appointed by the States-General, that exclusive charter of 
"privileges and exemptions " under which the feudalism of tlie old world was 
transplanted to the new, and out of which grew the angry contests between the 
patroons or lords of the soil and their landed tenants, or between the owners and 
occupants of the ground, which for so many yeare created local di.scords and 
legal disputes in different parts of the State. A landed aristocracy, let me say, 
can never be in true harmony with a democratic government and a republican 
people. 

These great historic events were the very steiiping stones to o\ir earliest colooial 
life. There were Qrotius and Barnevelilt on the one side — one the great writer 



438 Proceedings oe the Legislature. 

on International Law, the wisest, boldest ami bravest thinker of his time, and an 
authority witli statesmen and freemen everywhere and ever since. Grotius was 
one whom jNIenage called "a monster of erudition;" and so he was, but his 
erudition was aUke read and heard in song and story, and in tlie profoundest 
learning of the schools, while Barneveldt's moral force and political influence, in 
a large sense, made him almost the founder of the Dutch Republic. In all his- 
tory, we find no man whose cliaracter commands more respect. He knew Charles 
V and Philip II, as it were, by heart, and he knew them as the creators and pro- 
moters — sometimes, perhaps, for conscience sake — of colossal crimes, and as 
the enemies of all true liberty. They believed, and Philip especially, not alone 
in the supreme empire of the Church over the State, but that Charles and Philip, 
by Divine right, were the real masters of the world. Spain, under them, was 
the realm of immense power, and it required the combined forces of France, 
England and the Dutch to hold her ambition in check. Fortunately, the thirteen 
American Colonies, though largely Protestant, did not copy from the Dutch 
Republic the angry divisions among their Protestant people, for these quarrels 
were fiercer within the State than the wars without. The organized European 
league existed on the one side, and the great Protestant union on the other ; but 
the latter possessed more enmities, if not more enemies, within its own ranks 
than existed among all opposing forces. It is almost incredible that the points 
of separation related to those sharp dogmas, which from time to time seem to turn 
the world upside down. One of these was the doctrine of predestination, and 
whether, b_t election, one child was born to salvation and another to damnation. 
In almost ludicrous contrast, some, and even a large party of the English Separa- 
tists, wliich met at Amsterdam, became involved in a quarrel about the starched 
bauds for men, and the right kind of apparel for women. Happily for the Pil- 
grims at Holland, all their residence there was during the twelve years of truce 
with Spain, after forty years of continuous war. 

In some portions of this grand edifice I am reminded of the Spain of a thou- 
sand years ago; of Roman and jMoorish splendor as at Cordova; of decorations 
in the style of the Alhambra; of the blended Roman and Gothic, Moorish and 
Christian beauties of old Seville. We honor, however, only the glowing art of 
Andalusia, and not the follies of the old Andalusian age and people. The 
vaulted roof above us, sixty feet higher than the cornice, the massive corridors, 
decorated in bhic and gold, walls tinted in olive, amber and maroon, and belted 
with gold and saiTron; the allegories above us painted on stone, the one illustrat- 
ing the Flight of Night, followed, by the coming day, and the other The Dis- 
covery, with Fortune at the helm and Hope at the prow pointing to the West, 
with Faith and Science surrounding all, are but the contributions of old-time 
genius to the demands of modern art. While we copy from the past for the 
enjoyment of our present senses, we also stop with the eye, remembering the fate 
of cities and nations whose luxury and pride proved their ruin. 

Norgranito walls, nor marble halls, 

Can inaUe the State ; 
Nor-nide spread space, nor art, nor grace 

Avert its fate. 

But to return. The fault of Barneveldt — and this perhaps w.is a necessity of 
the times — ^was in asserting the supremacy of the political state over the minds 
and souls of men. Thankful to Almighty God should the people of the United 




GRAtSTD STAIRCASE, NEW CAPITOL 



Occupation of the New Capitol. 439 

States be for the iiispiiation of His word, the teachings of history and especially 
of that old-world history, which secured for us the separation of Ciiurch and 
State, with perfect freedom of conscience. Never in the United States of 
America, as so long in Holland, shall religious dissensions sever the bonds of the 
Republic, and never again can the dark spot of slavery, inherited in part from our 
Dutch ancestors, and largely from our English parents, and wholly from the old 
world, but only too eagerly adopted in the new, prove the cause or effect of dis- 
sension by State separation. 

I dwell upon such facts because it was amidst the throes of these European 
revolutions in the struggles for a freer thought that our American Colonies, and 
New York especially, were planted. There, amidst contending factious, Catho- 
lics, Lutherans, Baptists, Armenians, Calviuists, and the innumerable throng of 
schismatics, the reformed religion, as was said by the author of the Dutch Repub- 
lic, found the chasm of its own grave. 

Out of the old-world's strifes grew the new world's peace, embodied ninety 
years ago in the Federal Constitution, declaring that " Congress shall make no 
law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof." Our State Constitution is even more explicit. The preamble reads, 
"We the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our 
freedom, and in order to secure its blessings, do establish this Constitution." 
Then follows the declaration that: "The free exercise and enjoyment of religious 
profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, sliall forever be 
allowed in this State to all mankind." If our first Constitutions were the latest 
(both Colonial and State), finally adopted, they were the best because they gath- 
ered wisdom from all the rest. John Adams, in a letter to John Jay, did not 
hesitate to pronounce for us the last excellent over all others. 

We have but to recall John of Barnevcldt, executed at the Hague in IGIO for 
his faith and independence, and Grotius imprisoned for life for his fidelity to 
truth, but happily escaping from his prison-house by the skill of his loving wife, 
to see what fanaticism may do even in a Republic. Those who may think that 
the Hague was singularly despotic and fanatical, will remember the fate and 
death of Algernon Sydney and Lord William Russell half a century later, and of 
Sir Walter Raleigh only the year before. How true it is, and often how sad it is, 
that in matters of State and religion, history is always repeating itself. 

The Dutch Republic won her independence in spite of the most despotic power 
of the old world, but only to lose it after nearly forty years of war by her own 
internal, and these, chiefly, religious dissensions ; and as if these forty years of 
war were not sufficient, her later destiny was again foreshadowed in the thirty 
years' conflict soon to follow the twelve years' truce. Grotius, for his own 
country, for our country, and for all lands, most truly said : "If the trees we 
plant do not shade us, they will yet serve for our descendants." 

It was in the midst of this internal religious war in the United Provinces that 
the Puritans fled from England to Holland, with Robinson and Brewster for their 
leaders — men who have been christened as the Paul and Timothy of religious 
brotherhood, as "the ^•Eneas and Ascanius of the Pilgrim epic," and who only 
just before the embarkation on the Mayflower had planted the tree of that free 
religious government at Amsterdam and Leyden, which was soon transplanted, 
with entire religious freedom, into democratic government at New PljTuouth and 
New York. 

The words written at Leyden, first to Old and then to New England, aceom- 



440 Pkoceedings of the Legislatuee. 

panied the Pilgrims, and, recalling the date of their utterance, seem almost 
inspired. "Whereas you are to become a bod}' jjolitic, using among yourselves 
civil government, and are not furnished with any persons of special eminence 
above the rest to be chosen by you into otHcers of government, let your wisdom 
and godliness appear not only in choosidg such persons as do entirely love and 
'\\ill promote the common good, but also in yielding to them all liouor and obedi- 
ence in tlieir lawful administration ; not beholding in them the ordinariness of 
their persons, but God's ordinance for j'our good." 

Our forefathers, almost without exception, held that jjolitical bonds between 
Church and State made an incestuous union, and so they departed as far as pos- 
sible from that dangerous, anti-democratic, anti-republican maxim, cujiis regio, 
^us religio, or, whoever governs you, binds you to his religion. This was not a 
question so much of sects as of dogmas, and in time dogmas have burned thou- 
sands at the stake or tortured great multitudes in dungeons, or liung them upon 
the gibbet. Almost just when Hudson and the Pilgrims set out for New York 
bay by order of Philip III, a million of people, the most industrious of the realm, 
were banished from Spain because they were Moors, and from that day to the 
present Spain has ceased to be a prosperous nation. This cruel exile was the work 
first of the Archbishop of Valencia, backed by the primate of the kingdom, the 
Archbishop of Toledo, but the wiser Cardinal Kichelieu, half-priest, half-soldier, 
and all statesman, pronounced the act the most rash and barbarous of which the 
world makes mention. 

It may be asked, what has promjited this interest of one not a native of this 
State, and in the first meeting of the Legislatm'e in the New Capitol? I 
answer, and with more of State pride I hope than personal vanity, that it was 
impos.sible for a son of New England to have been forty-four years a citizen of 
this Commonwealth without feeling the deepest regard in its past history and 
future welfare. For nearly all these years, and chiefly as a New York journalist, 
but with a divided official and unofficial residence at Albany, Washington, and 
the great metropolis, I have watched the growth of the State. 

Nor could I forget the fact — which, considering subsequent events, as citizens 
of New York, will almost create a smile on your part — that not long after Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant had surrendered all New York to the English, in that memora- 
ble year, 1688, this entu-e Colony, now the Empire State of the Union, was surren- 
dered to New England, retaining only tlie privilege of possessing a Lieutenant- 
Governor.* King Charles II and his siiccessors were, however, the real Governors 
of this Province up to the period of the .American Revolution. No local repre- 
sentative government was permitted until 1G83, and after three years the General 
Assembly was extinguished until ICOl. From that time until the Revolution the 
Legislature made laws for the Colony, and the members increased in numbers, 
from seventeen to thirty-one, in the space of eighty-eight years, and the pay of 
members from 75 cents to $L35 a day! The counties or districts, and not the 

* James TI constituted Sir Edmund Andros Oovernor of New England and Ncv Tlir/r just 
before ins.*^. Andros oame to New York under this authority and afrainst it Leister rebelled. See 
N. V. Coloni.ll History for a record of this rel>elIion. See. also, Broadhead's History of N. Y., 
vol. 2. 1S71. pp. 121 arid.')35. .Mso. New York Historical Society collections of I8i;!>-74. and the 
Andros tracts with a proclamation as Governor of New Encrland. dated .Tanuar>* 10th. 1688. 
Also, Palfrey's History of N. E . where Whitruore says. " returtiinc: to Boston he (.\ndrosi found a 
great promotion awaiting him ir) a new commission creating him (xovcrnor of all tiie English pos- 
sessions on the main land. ♦ # * * His command emljraced New England. iSVic I'or/C 
and New .Jersey, with its capilol at Boston." * ♦ * * In .Tuly, August and September, 
lljSS. Andros made a tour through the Colonies, going through the Jerseys and visiting New Y'ork 
city, Albany and Hartford. 



Occupation of the Nkw Capitol. 441 

Colony, paid the bills, and the same per diem for travel, whieh was also limited 
by law. The term of legislative service from lODl was from two to ten years, 
and in 1743 the limitation was for seven years, unless sooner dissolved by the 
King or by the Governor upon the King's authority. From 1G83 to 1776, it is 
due to the past to say that New York won the first victory both for civil and 
religious liberty, as it did in the Congress of the Colonies for our present Amer- 
ican Union. 

Besides, the county of Richmond, from which I come, was the scene of almost 
greater interest through the Revolutionary period than almost any other part of 
the State. There, was nearly the beginning of the real AVar of the Revolution. 
There, for si.\ years the Islands, Manhattan and Stateii (the latter christened "the 
Island of the States" of Holland), was under British rule. Over both, for long 
periods of time, the Dutch and English alternately predominated. There, were 
the early homes of the Walloons, the Waklenses, and Huguenots, all exiles from 
old-world bigotry and oppression. King James, Queene Anne, and William and 
Mary, all figure in the local history of that county. Hessians and Highlanders, 
there boasted, even after battle was over, that "they gave no quarter to rebels." 
There, almost contemporaneously with the meeting of the first Assembly of New 
York, came and anchored 207 sail of British vessels of war, with troops com- 
manded by Lord Howe on the land, and the navy by his brother, the Admiral, on 
the sea. There 33,000 British and Hessians* crossed the bay to Long Island to 
attack our feeble and scattered militia. Tliere, 101 years ago, on the 14th of last 
September, by an invitation from Lord Howe sent through his prisoner. General 
Sullivan, and addressed to the Continental Congress, came Benjamin Franklin, of 
Penn.sylvania, John Adams, of JIassachusetts, and Edward Rutledge, of South 
Carolina, to receive, but not to accept, offers of full pardon to "repentant rebels" 
who would lay down their arms and prove their allegiance. 

In all the eventful incidents of the Revolution, I know of not one more im- 
pressive than that at Stateu I.sland in 1777, where, surrounded by British grena- 
diers, in the room of a house still standing, then a barrack for British soldiers, 
Lord Howe offered a royal pardon to that triumvirate of patriots, Franklin, 
Adams and Rutledge, and through them to the then nearly three millions of 
American people, half a million of whom were slaves. Lord Howe was in man- 
ners every way a gentleman, as he Wiis a soldier in courage; but with only pardon 
for men who had taken up anus for ' ' independence now and independence for- 
ever," there could be no reconciliation short of eternal separation from the mother 
country. When his lordship told the committee, sent by Congress, that he had a 
very great regard for Americans, and that their precipitancy was painful to him 
and perilous to themselves, Franklin answered: "The American people will en- 
deavor to take good rare of tliemselves, and thus relieve, as much as possible, the 
pain felt by his lordsliip for any serWce he might deem it his duty to adopt." 
And when Lord Howe repeated his regrets that he could not receive tliis com- 
mittee as public characters, John Adams replied: " I should be willing to con- 
sider myself in any character agreeable to your lordship, except that of a British 
subject." 

Later on in the war — such was the retributive justice of the times — Mr. .Vdams, 
who was prominent as one of the earliest and most intense of the rebels, had to 

* A part of the 1^,000 soldiers and sailors which came from England to America between 1775 
and 17S1. 

56 



442 Proceedings of tiie Legislature. 

be received by the King of England, in person, as the first minister from the 
United States at the court of St. James.* 

In later j'ears, on Stateu Island, also lived 'and died one who seventy-seven 
years ago was a leading member of the State Legislature, as was his father during 
the whole of the Revolutionary period. He was a Judge of the Supreme Court, 
State Chancellor, Governor of the State befoi-e the age of tliirty-three, the first 
Governor who sat in the Old Capitol (elected in 1807, re-elected in 1810, 1813 and 
1816), where sixteen other Governors have since filled the executive ofiice,t chosen 
Vice-President of the United States in 1817, and re-elected in 1821, after taking 
a soldier's and statesman's part in the war of 1813-15. As a financier, Robert 
Morris was hardly more successful in the war of the Revolution than was Gov- 
ernor Tompkins in the second war with England. Prom New York city in 1801, 
from Richmond county in 1821, and from the latter made President of the Con- 
vention, Governor Tompkins was elected to revise and amend the State Constitu 
tion. Whatever he did, he did well, and this, whether as military commander 
or financier in war, or when, as in 1813, in his message to the Legislature at the 
commencement of the session, he asked that "the reproach of slavery be expunged 
from our statute book ; " and in proroguing the same body, the same year — the 
only like executive act in the history of the State — declared that the banking sys- 
tem of that period had been increased and fostered by bribery and corruption 
which threatened irreparable evils to the community. His honest courage was 
met by the hottest of party anathemas ; but strong in his integrity and in a right- 
eous public opinion, he secured the admiration of the people in all the States. 

Our State abounds in many like honorable examples, which for the honored 
dead there is not time to mention, and still less for the living, whose fames and 
names will survive them. Here of the now dead men of the past sat also as Gov- 
ernors, and in more than regal state, the Clintons, Van Buren, Marcy, "Wright, 
Seward, Lewis, Bouck, and Yates ; and in the halls of legislation, three candi- 
dates for President of the United States, one of whom was elected, and three of 
whom were chosen Vice-President. Nineteen of the citizens of New York have 
also filled the best places in the Cabinet at AVashington. There were also, in the 
past, in the halls of legislation, in Senate or Assembly, a long line of honored 
names, as the Livingstons, the Roots, the Grangers, the Youngs, the Spencers, 
the Tallmadges, the Verplancks, the Dickensons, the Beardsleys, the Tracys, the 
Comings, the Cadys, the Williamses ; the Wheatons, the Taylors, the Van Vech- 
tens, the Butlers, the Bronsons, the Van Rensselaers, the Hoilmans, the Wen- 
dalls, the Ogdens, the Savages, the Oakleys, and a multitude of stars only less in 
magnitude whom no man can number, many of whom are examples for the pres- 
ent day and for all time. 

The century of our legislative history lias witnessed, after tlie fiercest and cost- 
liest civil war on record, the growth and extirpation of slavery. The institution 
died out in the North by peaceful means, simply because it was unprofitable, and 
not alone because it was immoral. Slavery continued longest at the South be- 
cause the negro was most at home in the tropics, and because for half a century or 
more it was thought — happily a mistaken thought — that cotton, sugar and tobacco 

* Samuel Adams and John Hancock were the only two patriots specially excepted in 1775 from 
the offer o£ pardon in the proclamation of General Gage issued by order of the King, and this on 
the express ground that their offenses were of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other con- 
sideration than that of condign punishment. 

t Besides Governor Tornpicins. elected for four terms, were De Witt Olinton, elected ft tr four 
terms, William L. Marcy for three terms, William II. Seward, Edwin D. Morgan. Reuben E. Fen- 
ton, and John T. Hoffman for two terms each. All these with the rest presided in the Old Capitol. 



Occupation of the NE^v Capitol. 443 

could only be successfully cultivated by negro labor. Once, indeed, New York 
had more slaves than Virginia, and tlie old Holland Company agreed to furnish 
slaves just so long as they were profitable. On penalty of exile, no colonist could 
then weave an inch of cotton, woolen or linen cloth, and for any departure from 
this rule, to exile was added the eternal displeasure of the weavers of Holland, 
whose monopolies, however, let me say, were no worse than those of old England, 
also long eniiched by the slave trade. 

Just one hundred years before the close of the Revolution, Governor Dongan, 
directed by the Duke of York, later James U, and advised by William Penn, laid 
the foundation of a freer government in New York, where in 1683 was legally 
called together the first Assembly of the people's representatives. 

Passing over these nearly one hundred years, I see George Washington proposed 
by John Adams in the Continental Congress — John Hancock being its president — 
to be Commander-in-Chief of the American Armj'. As modest as he was brave, 
and xinsclfish as he was wise, the office is accepted with the desire and pledge 
that he may serve his country without personal reward. Ten days later he is 
received, in his uniform of blue, in New York city by great masses of people with 
an entli\isiasm never surpassed. The Provincial Congress of New York shared in 
these honors, and bid God-speed to one whom, as with the great chief of Israel, 
Heaven seemed to inspire with wisdom, patience, and especial courage and endow- 
ments for command. All the way to old Cambridge was a scene of ovation and 
thanksgiving. New England, with Washington in command, is soon free from 
British rule. Boston harbor and Boston town are no longer tenable for British 
troops or Britisli ships; and Washington now moves unobstructed toward New 
York, from henceforth until the war was closed, the stronghold of the enemy. 
The flag of a new Union now floated for the first time unmolested over New Eng- 
land, as did the British flag over the Island of Manhattan to the end of the war. 

Boston and Philadelphia were then the largest cities. In tune Philadelphia was 
destined to share the fate of New York. The purpose of Sir Henry Clinton and 
of Guy Carleton was to cut oil all communication between New England and 
New York ; but Washington kept his eyes fixed upon the Hudson, and especially 
upon West Point, as the key to the north and the gate-way to the south. Soon 
and sadly Long Island, New York, Fort Lee and Fort Washington were all sur- 
rendered. For forty-eight hours Washington was in the saddle superintending 
the retreat of his few but brave troops from Long Island, and moving them all in 
safety even when within gun-shot of the enemy ; but later losing his artillery and 
baggage in the uplands of the city of New York. 

Thoughtful men have often paused to contemplate the possible fate of North 
America had Washington fallen during the retreat of his army from Long Island. 
The young nation wept at this disaster, but rejoiced that an overruling Providence 
preserved his life. Trenton and the Delaware alone turned tlie tide of battle, and 
Washington at Jlorristown with two thousand men kept twenty-five thousand at 
bay, and soon lifted the gloom which for a time seemed denser than Cimmerian 
darkness. Later on, Burgoyne at the north, Howe at the south, an advance from 
New York by the Hudson, and an alliance with savage men, was the year's plan 
of campaign. All along our frontier the Otiawas, Wyandottes, Senecas, Dela- 
wares and Pottawatamies were in league with the hardly less savage Hessians and 
Britons, led by Lord George Germain and Sir G\iy Carleton. For six months 
more the fide rolled like the billows of the sea against the Americans. La Come 
St. Luk, the remorseless partisan, enraged by age and inspired by hate, pledged 



444 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

himself to Carleton that within sixty days he would bring his Indian followers to 
the very spot where the Legislature is now assembled. 

Indians, Tories, Hessians and Canadians, moved for a time toward the Hudson 
like so many torrents from the mountains, but long before they reached Albany 
they were met by one to whose ears the roar of cannon was as natural as the 
music of the spheres. General Stark and his New Hampshire and Green Moun- 
tain boys stood like a wall of fire between the assault and advance of the enemy, 
and soon drove back the latter both defeated and dismayed. Ere long, King, 
Ministry and Parliament, tire of Indian allies and Indian massacres along the 
Mohawk and Hudson, at Forts Stanwix and Edward, and elsewhere. Burgoj'ne's 
surrender soon followed, with the loss of 10,000 men, thus relieving the now capi- 
tal of the State instead of placing it in the promised sixty days in the hands of 
the enemy. 

As the clouds rolled over and along the Hudson, the spirits of a long-despond- 
ent people also rose in the Colonies; but all through 1777, '78, '79, there was alter- 
nate sunshine and storm, disaster and \actory, until at last, with France for our 
ally, the mother country became weary of hostility to her own offspring, in a war 
that often seemed as unnatural as the mother feeding upon its young. The story 
of the Wallabout and of the prison ships, of Dartmouth prison filled with Ameri- 
can sailors, worse than the stories of the Bastile crowded with prisoners, was a 
part of the cruel and bloody history of one hundred years ago. The massacre at 
Wyoming was only more sudden and ferocious ; but thanks again to an overruling 
Providence, the end came, but only after Monmouth, Stony Point, Cowpens, Gil- 
ford Court-House, Yorktowu and many victories upon the seas. It came in spite 
of Arnold's treason, the mutiny of unpaid troops, and a condition of finance so 
deplorable that it took thirty-three dollars of Continental money to secure one in 
specie. It was a maxim, even then, that bad money in the end made bad times, 
and always failed to pay satisfactorily one's debts, and it has never been other- 
wise from the days of Chinese paper money to the paper notes of John Law, the 
Mississippi bubble, the French assignats, and the currency of the rebellion.* 

It was just eight years from the battle of Lexington to the proclamation of 
peace, and nearly nine to the evacuation of New York city, ninety-five years ago, 
when, upon a bright and frosty November afternoon, the last of the Britons took 
their leave of America, then and forever. They left the British flag nailed and 
flying at mast-head upon the Battery, but before they were out of sight ujjon the 
bay it was torn to tatters, and in place of it a noble sailor, whose descendant still 
lives to raise the stars and stripes every 25th of November, raised the Union flag, 
which soon floated in the breeze, and with God's blessing it will float there, "not 
one star polluted, not one stripe erased," to tlie end of time. Governor George 
Clinton for the colony of New York, seven limes elected its Governor in Colony 
and State, with General Knox, in command of all the Colonial forces, at once 
occupied the town. Nine days later the ever-beloved commander-in-chief took 
leave of the army, in the presence of his officers, at Frazer's tavern, Wliitehall, 
near the present New York ferry, and a few days later tendered his resignation in 
person to the Continental Congress, at Annapolis, and returned to his home at 
Mt. Vernon, which he liad been permitted to visit but once in seven years. 

Then came the old Confederacy, which, as you know, was a failure — like the 

* TliR old-time money here, when not beavers whicli for a lon^ time were used as a medium of 
exchange, was wani])um, where six white or tliree cylindrical pieces made of shells were equiva- 
lent to one farthing, and so passed between the planters and natives. 



Occupation of the New CapitOl. 445 

new one of 18U0-(>1, thoiigli for a far different cause — and tlicn the Constitution, 
wliich was, and is, the grandest work in tlie liistorj' of nations. Under its benign 
influence tlie first Congress assembled in our great metropolis, and there, April 30, 
1789, the great charter was received and inaugurated, John Adams, the first Vice- 
President, presenting to take the oath of office, George Washington, the first 
President, to Chancellor Livingston of the State of Xew York.* That oath was 
a pledge to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. 
As it was obeyed by Washington and his successors, so let it be observed for all 
time, and not less iu the spirit than in the letter. What a Cabinet was the first 
one, the President, the central figure of all, and around him only four members; 
Init of these secretaries were .Teflerson, the senior of the four, at the age of forty- 
seven; Ivno.x at the age of forty; Randolph at thirty-seven, and Hamilton not 
quite thirty-three; the last the ornament and pride of the State, the great organi- 
zer of the Federal Treasury, whose method of collecting, keeping and disbursing 
the public money has not been improved from that day to the present; the man 
who so framed the law that he could not diaw his own small salarj' without the 
signatures of the Comptroller and Auditor, and of the Treasurer and Register — 
too much red tape, you may say, but better red tape by the mile than dishonest 
officials by the score, or even one. 

The past is secure, and the future must be judged by the past. 3Ien change 
for the better rather by the grace of God, than by individual instincts or human 
institutions. But free government is born of God, and nations rise, advance and 
fall as they establish and maintain, or neglect the right way; and men who love 
their homes and countiy watch its life and progress, with an interest akin to their 
love of family. The truest patriotism rests only upon the solid foundation of 
private virtue and public purity. 

With something of this feeling, I hope we have all w-atched the growth of 
New York. The population, only 340,000 in 1790, and only about 7.50,000 when 
the Old Capitol was completed, and under the census of 1835, at the close of the 
j-ear, when I first knew our great city, numbered 2,130,000 white, and 43,000 
colored persons. Forty years later, the white population was 4,642,837, and the 
colored only 50,127. Only in two decades, since 1790, have the latter grown in 
numbers, and this increase altogether has been less than one per cent, while the 
white population, in the same period, increased 3.22 per cent. 

The cities and city suburbs of the State, always the focus of growth, have 
advanced as 34-93 to 1-93 for the rural towns. Un fortunately for States and 
people, gravitation is ever chiefly toward the town. Of our whole population, 
3,503,300 were native born; 1,195,658 foreign bom, and only 301,240 were born 
in the other States. 

Our State growth in agriculture and mechanical occupations has fairly kept 
pace with our increased po))ul.ition. If, as in the tillage of the soil, families and 
dwellings, work-shops and churches, with conjugal life, are the best signs of 
prosperity. New York deserves to be, as she is, the Empire State of the Union. 
Unfortunately, in some things our growth shows both our shame and our sorrow. 
.Just as ill weeds grow apace, so public debts often increase, bringing with 
its burdens more self-denial than is agreeable, and more taxes than are bearable. 
In our city, town, village and corporate debts, I see the source of nearly all 

*New York not hovinp adopted the Federnl Constitution in time, as with Rhode Island and 
South Carolina, did not vote for Die first President. Of the ~J votes cast Washineton liad 69; Jolin 
Jay, 9; George Clinton, 3; and John Adams, .'il, which made him the flrst Vice-Tresident. 



446 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

our woes. Debt is the hardest of masters and her servants usually the worst of 
slaves. The Federal and State debts are happily on the decline, but in 1875 
the local debts, if the State Comptroller is correct, make the startling sum of 
$250,000,000, and the decrease is not large. Ten thousand millions is the estima- 
ted debt of the nation, and the estimated debt of the world three times as many 
billions. It is not an encouraging fact that in the city of New York alone, in 
1878, the fifth year of the panic, there were 917 failures, and only $18,695,531 of 
assets for 163,958,403 of liabilities. With all our present easement and brighter 
prospects, we must also take in the fact that in 1877, the town, county and State tax 
summed up over fifty millions of dollars, with as much more imposed, directly and 
indirectly, upon the people by the Federal government. The people were drawn 
into this crime of debt, for it was nothing less, not so much by war alone, as by a 
false financial policy, and by a fiction c;alled prosperity ; but it was the jDrosperity 
of a man who thinks that delirium is happiness, and that profits from gambling 
are snbstantial evidences of wealth. After the dinner, the wine and the debauch, 
comes repentance, but it comes too late. In this and in other States, too many 
people, clothed in silks, broadclothes and costly apparel, have been riding as it 
were upon the horns of the moon, and by its pale light, they beheld their length- 
ened shadows, they fancied indeed that the moon was really made of green cheese, 
and the cheese itself was both as yellow as gold, and quite as large as the orb of 
day. Pay-days have been coming, and coming for more than five years past, and 
they have not been like angels' visits few and far between. When the debt is 
all paid, either by wholesale millions, as through the late Federal bankrupt law, 
or by means provided by State law, or, what is better, by the honest dollar for 
every honest debt, we shall once more stand upon solid ground. 

But, as a contrast to this debt-picture, we have a right to contemplate our growth 
in political and scientific knowledge. When the first New York Assembly met, 
and for nearly half a century later, there were no telegraphs, no deep-sea cables 
putting a girdle around the eartli in a wink of time, so that Valentia and Heart's 
Content are now t'v\'ice spanned 3,700 miles over two cables in a second with simple 
contents which might be put in a lady's thimble, and these contents composed 
only of acids, zinc and copper. A battery of 20 cells has proved more potent 
than aforetime one of 500. Our good home-spun forefathers and foremothers had 
no railroads, no illuminating gas, no electric lights, no friction matches, no iron 
stoves, no heating by steam, or steam motive power, no side-wheel or screw ocean 
steamers, no sewing-machines, no American pottery, no heliographs nor photo- 
graphs, nor phonographs nor telephones ; no steam-plows, no balloons to survey 
armies as from the clouds, nor diving bells to collect treasures from the deep, no 
ana;sthetics or chloroforms to produce deliverance from pain while limbs are being 
amputated, and the decayed tooth of old time removed for the bran-new porce- 
lains of the dentist and chemist of to-day. The Indian trail path, the saddle-horse, 
and here and there the lumbering coach, the canoe, and by sail or on foot, were 
the only old times ways and means of conveyance. And now, in CO days one can 
circumnavigate the earth. The brick and Dutch ovens were the bread and meat 
bakers, and pine-knots and tallow dips the chief sources of light, while about the 
only means of warmth were tlie stone hearth and the deep fire-place. Carpets 
and rugs and mats were almost unknown. Sanded floors and the tinder-box, with 
its flint and iron, were the substitutes for parlor and kitchen matches. The old 
oaken bucket and the deep-sunken wells took precedence of our Croton pipes and 
hydraulic rams. 



Occupation of ttie New Capitol. 447 

All is changcil ikuv. Our Stiito poimlatiDn increased 23 per cent between 1865 
and in 1875; * and judging from the past, at the close of 1899, a period not far 
distant, the Empire State will have 0,130,000 inhabitants. 

A fact also of public interest is the rather close relation of the sexes to the 
number of people, or 3,378,780 females to 2.330,178 males; an excess of females 
of 58,003. Our foreign population is a trifle in excess of 25 per cent of the grand 
total of 4,698,958, which does not include children born of foreign parents, but 
even these give to New York city only 57,337 of native population; to Kings 
county 05.24; and to Erie county 66.578. New York city has 19.198 per cent of 
Irish, and 15,405 per cent of Ocrmans. All our sister States together have con- 
tributed only 0.411 to our whole people. The Empire State, to-day, has a popula- 
tion larger than any one of the South American States, except Brazil, and more 
people than Ilcjlland or Denmark, Greece or Portugal, Saxony or Switzerland, and 
close on to the numbers in Bavaria, Belgium, or the whole of British North America, 
from New Poundland to the Roeky Mountains. Of our 4,008,958 people, 1,141,- 
403 were entitled to the ballot, in 1870, after subtracting 130,000 aliens not enti- 
tled to vote, but including 3'.)4, 182 naturalized citizens and 747,380 native-born 
citizens. Only in New York, Kings, and Eric is there an excess of naturalized 
voters: 50,300 in New York, 5,610 in Kings, and 399 in Erie. 

The charge of fraudulent voting in our two great cities, let us hope, is no longer 
true, for if the census be correct. New York city in 1875 had 333,153 legal voters, 
and polled 171,374 votes for president, or only 73.81 per cent, and Kings county 
but 84.43. Where 49 co\uities cast 90 per cent of their legal votes, 36 of the 
more rural counties cast 95 per cent. Perhaps, however, it is a creditable fact to 
state, as a whole, that in 1870, 1,015,537 votes were polled of the 1,141,463 State 
voters, or 88 per cent of the whole voting population. 

The military capacity of the State is equally striking, with 956,874 males 
between the ages of eighteen and forty -five; and so with the schools, with (in 
1877) 1,580,234 persons between the ages of five and twenty-one, which is the 
school period. 

It is also creditable to the State that its families number 995,503, and its dwell- 
ings 738,688, or 6.45 per cent to each dwelling, but only 4.72 to each family — a 
fact not so creditable to the people, and wholly in contrast to the examj)les of our 
good grandparents. The family is the only safe and sacred abiding place of the 
State, and without it the moral sun would almost cease to shine, and the earth 
prove but a living sepulchre, full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. The 
true family means husband, wife, mother, father, children, grandparents and grand- 
children — all, indeed, who are under the same roof. These are the household 
gods of the Commonwealth, tlie main-stay of its power, and the very essence of its 
present strength and future life. The family of States is the union of States, and 
this means noble ancestry and lineage, tlie descent from a common stock and race, 
kindred people in life and thought, while the human family means, and by no 
stretch of imagination, the welfare of our country and of mankind all over the 
world. 

It is agreeable to say that the value of our State dwellings alone is far in excess 
of our national debt, or $3,405,033,034, and nearly one-half of this value is taxed 
to the city of New York. Of |.50,324,848 of taxes for all purpcses levied by the 

• In sixty years, from 1800-flO, the incri>(isein the United States was 593 per cent; in England and 
Wales 121 per cent, and in France only 37 per cent. 



448 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

State in 1877, New York and Kings counties paid $35,653,834 and still more 
in 1878. 

Next to the family, the glory of the Commonwealth is its common schools, open 
to-day to 1,615,256 of our present children, not counting 7,000 students in our 
colleges and higher seminaries of learning, and most of all these soon to be the 
fathers and mothers of the State. Ninety-five years ago there was not one academy 
nor one common school and but one poor university in the State. If knowledge 
is power, our schools, public and private, are the sources of our future greatness. 

Kindred to the schools, and as the sources of Christian education, are 6,320 
church ediflces, with an eni-oUed membership of 1,146,537, and sittings for 2,537,- 
470 people.* The New York churches are valued at $117,597,150, with salaries 
in gross of $5,308,231, but making an average of less than $840 each. In their order, 
Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and Presbyterian lead the way in church buUduigs. 
In membership, also in their order, the Roman Catholics, Methodists and Presby- 
terians take the lead. I can flud only forty-four sects or denominations in the State, 
but it is to be hoped, and indeed it is true, that many of these divisions, like kin- 
dred drops of water from one great fountain, not only mingle into one, but have 
their source in one great Father, their life in one great brotherhood, and their final 
faith and destiny in the one great Creator and Saviour of the world. 

If figures were not tiresome, and sometimes exhausting, one might remember 
with instruction, though not with satisfaction, for the numbers are far too few, 
the fact that less than one-tenth of om- entire people are lauded proprietors.! 
Then comes the unwelcome fact also that the largest proprietors are gradually but 
certainly absorbing the land of the smallest. In 1875 there were 341,839 farms in 
the State, the whole having 25,659,366 acres, the value of which was $1,331,473,- 
377, besides stock valued at $146,497,154. It is to be regretted that there were 
2,018 less farms of ten and twenty acres each, 14,908 less of twenty and fifty, and 
3,838 of fift}' and one hundred acres each in 1875 than in 1870, while the net 
increase of farms from 1870 to 1875 were 35,586, and this dilierence will be more 
marked in the future than in the past. Capital, machinery and competition, with 
a constant tendency to centralization, are always powers of absorption, but against 
them you may place skill, industry, order, temperance and thrift ; in one word, 
capacity, which, in man or woman, as a rule, are elements of sure success. Land 
and building incumbrances were the plague spots of so-called prosperous times, 
and year by year, for over five years now, the money-lenders and capitalists have 
demanded the promised pound of flesh in the form of surrendered acres, work- 
shops, stores and dwellings. 

Tlie products of our farms, providing work for 351,638 people, present almost 
exciting results; the sales of 1876 returned $131,187,467, and the variety 
embraced every thing belonging to the soil, the dairy, and to the raising of stock. 

The population rejiresenthig the productive industry of the State, in 1870, was 
1,537,726, of whom 1,375,373 are males, and 363,354 females. Of these 925,393 
were natives, and 612,433 foreign born; and the females were only one-sixth of 
the whole force. One-half of the female contingent are domestic servants. Of 
the rest 81.758 were engaged in trade, and 15,140 were teachers. Let me say 
here, and upon the evidence of long observation, that skilled work in man or 

*In the United States the number in 1870 was 21.665,063 sittings, 63,082 ediflces, and 78,459 congre 
gations. and the property was valued at SS-^t, 483.581. 

tit is worse in England, where twenty thousand persons own the land occupied by 30,000,000 of 
people. 



Occupation of the Xkw C a 1*1101,. 440 

woman, imd especially is this true of woman, is sure to linil both place antl 
reward. .Vlexaniler Hamilton once prayed for diversity ic the industries of the 
new world; and his i)rayer is now heard. 

In the United States roll-call of laT.T are 0,000,000 of persons engaged in agri- 
culture, 3,700,000 in mining and manufacturing, 1,200,000 in trade and transpor- 
tation, 2,600,000 in professional life, of whom 40,000 were lawyers, 02,000 physi- 
cians, and 43,000 clergymen. 

The conclusion of all these figures and of the brief record of history I have 
recited is, in the words of Franklin before the Continental Congress: "That God 
governs in the affairs of men, and if a sjjarrow cannot fall to the ground without 
His notice, ncitlier can a Kingdom rise without His aid." We write Excelsior 
upon our escutcheon, placing the scales of justice in the light hand of one figure, 
as symbolical of jiurity and truth, while the ca)) of liljcrty is held in the left of 
the fair Goddess of Freedom, the eagle ever watching with eager eyes and free 
wings these emblems of our State. Ships upon the sea, steam upon land, river 
and ocean, and industry and thrift all around, till up the picture and become the 
evidence, under Providence, that God has always blessed our homes and our 
State. 

Fellow-members, brothers in the pledge of dutiful obedience to the State, rep- 
resentatives of nearly .'5, 000,000 of people, ui)on you rests the sacred obligation of 
present duty. See to it that at your hands nothing that is noble and ennobling is 
lost of the past ; and that, through your example, the Legislature of the year of 
our Lord 1879 shall inspire confidence in all the future. .Vnd to the end of time 
may God save and bless the Commonwealth of New York. 

At the close of tlie address of Mr. Bkociks, the Chaplain of the Sen- 
ate, Rev. Dr. II.vi.r.KY, ])n)iioinice(l the benediction. 

Mr. Sloan moved that the thanks of the joint assembly be tendered 

to theLiEUTENANT-GovKRNOE, the Speaker of the Assembly, and Hon. 

EiJASTrs Brooks, for the interesting and able addresses delivered by 

them, and that the Clerks of the Senate and As.-^enibly lie iiistrncted 

to cause them to be inserted in the journals of the two Houses respect- 
ively. 

The President put the question whether the joint assembly wonlil 
agi-ee to said motion, and it was decided in tiie affirmative. 

The President then announced the proceedings closed, and declared 

the joint assembly dissolved. 

The Senate then i-ctnrned tu the Senate chamber. 
67 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Ackland, Lady Harriet 327, 328 

Ackland, JIajor 327, n. 328 

Act for printing present volume 2 

Albany, resolution of common council of 387 

Report of committee of common council of 387 

Proposals to remove capitol from 399 

Wliy arms of the State have not been placed on capitol at, (appendix) . . 400 

Sun dial on capitol at 400 

Resolution of common council relative to sun dial ' 401 

Alden, Col. Ichabod 375 

Alvord, Thomas G., address on occupation of the new capitol 429 

Thanks to 449 

Andre, John, inscription to 197 

Capture of 202, 211 

Letter of 218 

Papers found on his person 219 

Andros, Sir Edmund, 440 

Arms of the State, letter of Dr. Homes regarding 400 

Arnold, Benedict, Gen., volunteers to release Stanwix.^ 89 

Proclamation of ....'. 89 

As hero of Bemus Heights 159 

Papers of, to Andre 219 

Acrostic, relative to 338 

Anecdote regarding 339 

Arnold, Hannali, letter of 339 

B. 

Bacon, Judge W. F., speech of 74 

Bank of America 397 

Beach, Hon. Allen C., Introductory by 1 

Report of, on concurrent resolution 2 

Bemus Heights, authority for spelling name of 192 

Celebration of 151 

Bemus, John 155, 192 

Block, Adrian 437 

Brant, Joseph, description of 81 

Account of 370 

Brant, JloUy lit! 



452 Index. 

PAGE. 

Brocks, Erastus, address on occupation of the new capitol 433 

Thanks to 449 

BuUard, D. A. , note 244 

Burgoyue, Sir John 78 

E.xtraot from his papers 134, 136 

Force of, surrendered 190 

Proceedings at surrender of 233 

Sketch of 267, n. 333 

Character of 334 

Burr, Aaron 390 

Butler, B C, poem by 350 

Butler, John, account of 81 

Butler, Walter 378 

c. 

Campbell, Douglas, speech of, at Oriskany 98 

Speech of, at Cherry Valley 363 

Campbell, Col. Samuel 376 

Capitol, The New, first legislative action regai'ding 405 

First act authorizing erection of 406 

Commissioners of 407 

Proceedings at laying corner stone of 410 

Clianges of commissioners of 408, 410 

Proceedings on occupation of 410 

Reception in honor of occupation of 417 

Committee of arrangements at reception 418 

Cost of building to Aug. 1, 1879 418 

Occupation of 421 

Capitol, The Old 386 

Bill authorizing erection of 389 

Laying corner stone of 391 

Payments for 392 

Description of . . 393 

Sun dial on 398 

Cherry Valley, ccleljration at 358 

Monument at 359 

Church, Chief Judge S. E., letter of 53 

Church, Refoimcd Dutch, of King.stou, account of 38, 44, 46 

Clark, Rev. R. W. 250 

Clau.s, Colonel, letters of 116,. 141 

Clinton, Dewitt C, message of, relative to Herkimer monument 147 

Clinton, George, elected Governor and Lieutenant-Governor 37 

Resigning latter office 37 

Description of 47 

Letter of 131 

Letter of, on Oriskany '. 135 

Clyde, J. D 97 

Clyde, Col. Samuel 102, 376 



Ixniox. 453 

PAGE. 

Congresses, account of various 123 

Constitution, speech regiirdiug aiinptinn of the 8 

First, a view of the 9 

Of 1846 11 

Cornell, Alon/.o B., New Capitol roiiimissionor 408 

Corner stone, laying of, of monument to David Williams 195 

Of Saratoga monument 247 

Of Old Capitol 891 

Of New Capitol . . 410 

Couch. .1. J., Grand Master, address of 249 

Council, of appointment 10 

Of revision 11, 396 

Curtis, Geo. William, address of, at Schuylervillc 264 

D. 

Delehanty, Martin 388 

Depew, C. M. , .speech at Kingston 29 

Commissioner of New Capitol 410 

De Wolf, Delos, commissioner of New Capitol 410 

De Peyster, Frederic ... 7 

De Peyster, J. W., poem of 126 

Ode by 348 

Doane, Rev. William Croswell, prayer by 423 

Doll, Geo. J. L., Prcieses, letter of 39 

Dorsheimer, William, Lt.-Gov. : 

Address at Oriskany 71 

At Beraus Heights 101 

Commissioner of New Capitol 412 

Address on occupation of New Capitol 425 

Thanks to 449 

Dimlap, Samuel Rev 367 

Earl, Samuel, speech of 113 

Evarts, W. M., letter of 53 



Fnirohild, Chas. S., Commissioner of New Capitol 414 

Ferguson 398 

Fonblanque, extract from writings of 334 

Foster, Lafayette S., address of 320 

Eraser, Gen 185, 189, n. 325 

French, W. B., Grand Marshal at Remus Heights, order of 151 

Grand Marshal at Schuylervillc 236 

G. 

Gallatin, quotation from address of 14 

Gansevort, Col. Peter 69 

History of flag of his regiment 70 



45-i Index. 

PAGE. 

Gates, General 162 

Sketch of 171 

Appointed to command 182 

Estimate of liis capacity 335 

Gebhaid, John, Jr. , letter of 314 

Germaine, Lord George, official letter of 139 

Evidence as to carelessness of 334, 354 

Gladding, H. L., address of 340 

Graham, Hon. J. G., concmrent resolution of 1 

Greene, Gen., order of 305 

Governor's Foot Guards , , 239 



H. / 

Halleck, Fitz Greene, poem of, read 335 ^ 

Hammond, S. H , report of 415 

Hamilton, Alex 10 

Hancock, John, letter of 149 

Hardin, Col. John, account of 351 

Han'is, Hamilton, commissioner of New Capitol 407, 410 

Resigns position 413 

Resolution offered by 421 

Haven, Dr. E. O., speech of 108 

Hayes, President, letter of 53 

Helmer, Dr. C. D., poem of 104 

Herchheimer, John Jost, petition of 118 

Account of 119 

Will of 119 

Herkimer, Gen., reference to 73, 83, 84 

Monument voted to 93 

Biographical account of 117 

Death of 133 

Will of '. 132 

Commission of 133, 125 

Herkimer Monument, letter in relation to 147 

Historical Society of New York, proceedings of 7 

Hoes, Rev. John C. F., address of _. 38 

Homes, Henry A. , State Librarian, letter of 147, 400 

House, Maj., sword of 123 

Hudson, Henry 436 

Hudson, Jno. T., New Capitol commissioner 408 

Hudson River, note relative to 435 

Hughes, Chas., Senator, resolution offered by 413 

Husted, Gen. J. W 27 

I. 

Introductory 1 

Iroquois Nation 354 



Index. 455 

J. 

PAGE. 

Jacobs, John C, report from . . 415 

Jay, Jolin 10 

Resolutions prepared l)y 30 

Chairman of a committee to report a constitution 32 

Johnson, Colonel Guy 369 

Johnson, Sir John, account of 81 

Leader of Tories at Oriskany 130, 369 

Johnson, Sir William 101, 368 

Johnstown, engagement at 378 

K. 

Kent 10 

Kiugslcy, "Wm. C, commissioner of New Capitol 410 

Kingston, Constitution adopted at 8 

Proceedings at celebration of 25 

Confines of Village in 1T7T. 42 

Academy of 44, 46 

Dutch Church at 39, 44, 46 

Court House at 44, 46 

Kirk, S. D., note 240 

Kirkland, Rev. Samuel, letter of 120 

Knower, Daniel, history of old fort at Schoharie by. . . 195 

Address by 210 

Description of monument to Williams by 230 

L. 

Lafayette, Gen 374, 396 

Lan.siiig, Mrs. A 70 

Lamb, John, letter of 219 

Latham, O. B., New Capitol commissioner 407 

Memorials presented by 407, 408 

Law of 1879, referring to present volume 2, 3 

Leisler, Jacob, rebellion of, note 440 

Lester, Chas. S., address of 250 

Lincoln, Gen 183 

Lindesay 366 

Livingston, William, letter of 206 

Lotteries 390 

Lowell, Eobt., poem by 163 

M. 

JIanhattan Bank 390 

Mann, Abijali, Jr., chairman, report of, on monuments to Herkimer and 

Woodhull 148 

Marshall, Chief Justice, remarks of, on capture of Andre 218 



456 Index. 

PAGE. 

Marshall, Mrs. Jane M. , note 238 

Mason, George 10 

McCrea, Jane 271 

Song relative to 293 

McEhoy, W. H., note 236 

McKesson, John, Secretary of Congress. 31 

McLean, Chas., 361 

Mechanicville, orthography of, name of 192 

Merritt, Edwin A., commissioner of New Capitol 410 

Mills, Colonel John 398 

Mitchell, Mr., incident relative to, at Cherry Valley 376 

Morgan, Colonel, his rifle regiment 186 

Moore, George H., motion of 32 

Moore, John 376 

Morris, Goverueur, in Provincial Congress 30 

Neilson, George W l.'il 

Newbnry 376 

Nott, Dr 363 

o. 

O'Conor, Charles, address of 8 

Oneida, Historical Society of, proceedings of 57 

Committees of, appointed ... 58 

Oriskany, proceedings at 57-150 

Orthography of name 138 

British account of aflair at 137 

Roster of 144 

P. 

Paulding, inscription on monument to 203 

Certificate of inhabitants of Westchester county as to character of 225 

Affidavit of 236 

Pfeiffer, Frederick 103 

Porter, John K 23 

Potter, Clarkson N. , speech of 106 

Pratt, Daniel, commissioner of New Capitol 413 

Pruyn, John V. L 405 

New Capitol commissioner 407 

Putnam, Gen., letter of 131 

K. 

Resolution for preparing present volume 1 

Revolutionary relics, exhibited at Oriskany 97 

Rice, Wm. A., New Capitol commissioner 408, 410 



Index. 457 

PAGE. 

Riedoscl, Baroness, nnte 329, 331 

Extract from lier writings 333 

Uicdcsel, ifajor Gen 179 

Kol)bie of the mill, song of 393 

Robinson, Lucius, Governor, letter from 434 

Roberts, Ellis II., historical address of, at Oriskany .... 78 

Appendix to 128 

s. 

Sammons, Frederick 136 

Saratoga Monument Association 233, 2G3, 344 

Sawyer, J. E. , ode by 360 

Schoharie, Old Fort at, history of 195 

County of, extract from history of 330 

Schoonmaker, Augustus, Jr., commissioner of New Capitol 415 

Schuyler, Fort, (see Stanwix.) 

Schuyler, George W., address of 333 

Commissioner of New Capitol 413 

Schuyler, Philip, Gen., proposal of, to relieve Stanwix 89 

Letter of 1 30 

His generalship 158 

In command of norllicni department 175 

Succeeded by Gates 182 

Apostrophe to 261 

Baroness Riedesel's reference to 333 

Schuylerville. proceedings of celebration at 233 

Descendants of those who fought in battle at 353 

Scott, George G., President at Bemus Heights, address of 155 

Appendix to. 192 

Seymour, Hon. Horatio, letters of 3, 50 

Address of, at Oriskany 66 

Address of, at Schuylerville 252 

Appendix to same 354 

Addresses of, at Cherry Valley 361, 383 

Seymour, John F., presiding at Oriskany 66 

Seward, Wm. H 363 

Sliaron, engagement at 378 

Sharpe, Hon. Geo. H., address at Kingston 40 

Simms, J. R., letter of 214 

Extract from history by 330 

Stanwix, Fort, flag first unfurled there 69 

History of 80 

Garrison of 80 

Description of flag of 87 

Building of 128 

Peace councils at . . 128 

Officers at 146 

Stevens, Ebenezer 168 

Stevens, James 106 

58 



458 Index. 

PAGE 

Stevens, John Austin, address by „ 168 

St. Leger, Gen., account of 81 

Flight from St.mwix 89 

Troops of, designated in London 129 

His account of occurrences at Fort Stauwix 131 

Letter of, to Gen. Burgoyne 140 

Stone, "Wm. L. , reference to 130 

Narrative of celebration by, at Schuylerville 233 

Address of . . 324 

Poem read hy. ... 350 

Street, Alfred B., poems by 307, 278 

Sun Dial ou Old Capitol 398, 400 

Surrender of Burgoyne, celebration of 233 

T- 

Talmadge, Colonel, letter of 339 

Terwilliger, James, New Capitol commissioner 408 

Thayer, Francis S., New Capitol commissioner 413 

Thayer, James S., New Capitol commissioner 408 

Throckmorton, B. W., address of 335 

Ticonderoga 269 

Tompkins, Governor D. D 397 

Topograpliy of Our Country, influence of 254 

Townsend, Martin I., address of 157 

Tremain, Grenville, address of 197 

Appendix to 218 

Tryon county, patriot rising in 83 

u. 

Utica Herald, account from 65 

Utica Observer, account from 64 

V. 

Van Cortlandt, President of Senate and Lieutenant-Governor 37 

Proclamation of 49 

Letter of 137 

Van Rensselaer, Philip S 391 

Van Wart, inscription on monument to 203 

Certificate of inhabitants of Westchester county as to character of 335 

Affidavit of 225 

Varick, Miss A 389 

W. 

Walworth, Mrs. Ellen Hardin, letter of 351 

Warren, Sir Peter 368 

Wells, Mr 375 

Westbrook, Judge T. R. , address by 28 



Index. 459 

PAGE. 

TVliite, Philo, speech of 103 

Williams, Oavid, proceedings at laying corner stone of monument to 195 

Biographical account of 210 

Presentation to 312 

Bill for monument to 213 

Certificate of inhabitants of Westchester county, as to character of . . . . 225 

Autobiography of 227 

Description of monument to 230 

Woodhull, President of Congress 81 

Relative to monument for 147 

Y. 

Yates, A. A., address of 344 

Yates, Gov. J. C 396 



LIBRARY 




